World 800m champion Mary Moraa and Lillian Odira made it to the Paris Olympic games semis on Friday night, while their compatriot Vivian Chebet failed to qualify and will have to navigate through a repechage on Saturday.
Chebet was the 1st of the trio on the purple track competing in heat 3 of round 1 only to manage a 5th finish way outside the three automatic qualifying slots.
Chebet will return on Saturday for the newly introduced repechage round to determine her semi final fate.
Moraa controlled the pace in heat 5 to cross the finish line in 2nd position clocking 1:57.95 .
The heat was won by Ethiopian Tsige Duguma who clocked 1:57.90.
Odira had to rely on her strong finishing kick in heat 6 to earn a slot in the semis after finishing 3rd in 1 minute 58.88.
Earlier in the evening on Friday the 4x400m mixed relay team failed to qualify for Saturday’s final finishing 2nd last in heat 1.USA shattered the World record.
