Odira eyeing new heights after major career leap at Prisons
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Reading Time: 2min | Fri. 03.10.25. | 19:15
She became the fourth Kenyan woman to win the 800m world title, following in the footsteps of pioneer Janeth Jepkosgei (2007), Eunice Sum (2013), and outgoing champion Mary Moraa (2023)
Women’s 800m World Champion Lilian Odira has been honored by the Kenya Prisons Service after winning a gold medal at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan last month.
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Odira, 26, has been promoted to the rank sergeant from constable after her magical exploits in Tokyo.
The colorful ceremony was presided over by the Commissioner General of Prisons Patrick Aranduh at the Kenya Prisons Headquarters in Nairobi.
On the sidelines of getting her new rank, Odira admitted that while all this new-found fame felt strange, she understood her new status, and the real job is to maintain that same level of competitiveness as her career takes off.
"I am just getting started. Winning the World title is a big deal and I am happy to achieved this. The real challenge now is maintaining that same level of performance going forward. However, the title serves as motivation to keep working on my racing," Odira, said, further thanking her coach and employer for their support in her budding career.
Odira's meteoric rise to the top of the world saw seen her become the fourth Kenyan woman to win the women's 800m world title, following in the footsteps of pioneer Janeth Jepkosgei (2007), Eunice Sum (2013), and outgoing champion Mary Moraa (2023).
A largely unknown athlete before the Tokyo event, but one who had been turning heads home before her triumph, she beat a loaded field for gold, surging past Great Britain’s Georgia Hunter Bell and Kelly Hodgkinson in the final metres, after Moraa did the dirty work in the opening 400m, to secure Kenya's seventh gold in the 2025 edition.
Coached by Jacinta Murigura, she set an almost two-second personal best and took down the oldest championship record in the book, the 42-year-old mark of 1:54.68 set by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.
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