Lilian Odira capped a storming performance by Kenyan women at the 2025 Tokyo World Athletics Championships with a sensational gold in the 800m race.
Her victory, on the final day of competition on September 21, gave Kenya a clean sweep of the gold medals in the middle and long distance races, that is, from 800m to marathon, becoming the first country in history to achieve such a feat.
World new agency Reuters broke her story with the headline “Kenyan Odira storms to shock 800m gold”.
World Athletics published her exploits under the heading “Odira times finish to perfection to win surprise 800m gold in Tokyo”.
Kenya's Lilian Odira crosses the finish line to win women's 800m final final ahead of British pair Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 21, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
The Nation , euphorically screamed “Kenya writes athletics story” and dramatically described how she brilliantly played her cards on the home stretch to smash the 42-year-old championship record.
The 26-year-old Odira dedicated her victory to her two boys, saying she has been working hard in training because of them.
“Getting into the championships, I was in good shape and I really felt strong and I just had to run calculated races to make it to the final, and here I am, the world champion. I’m so excited about my performance because it was my first time competing at the championships,” Odira told Nation Sports .
What many Kenyans may not know are the hours of daily training that Odira put in, and her change in training regime that eventually made her the strongest 800m runner in Tokyo.
She attributes her success to participating in cross country races which tremendously built her endurance with a podium finish in Tokyo her season’s main objective.
“I competed in a number of local cross country races and that helped me a lot because I was working on my resilience and endurance before heading to the track,” she said.
Odira raced in four local cross country meets in the 2km loop category, finishing third in Bomet, second in Olkalau and Sirikwa Classic and third at the national championships.
“We crossed the 400m mark with 55 seconds and that was quite fast for me because I’m not a 400m athlete and I had to be patient and keep my strength. Thee 800m race is tactical and I had to hold on until the 600m mark where I started my move. I saw myself in the top three but towards the end a dug deep and found I had reservoirs of strength to coast through to victory,” Odira recounts her Tokyo run.
It was a crowning moment for a girl who had been overshadowed for long in the 800m race by more illustrious runners the likes of her compatriot Mary Moraa, Keely Hodgkinson of Great Britain and Athing Mu of the USA.
Kenya's Lilian Odira celebrates after winning gold in women's 800m final at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo September 21, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
Odira represented Kenya at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games women’s 800m exiting at the semi-final stage after finishing fourth in a time of 1:58.53.
It is after this performance that Odira took a step back to critically review her training alongside her coach of three years Jecinta Muraguri.
“My coach understands how my body works. She knows how to handle me well and I treat her as my mother despite being my boss at the Kenya Prisons Service in Nairobi. We have worked so well together since we met. We agreed I venture into cross country to build my strength,” she said.
Well, a year later, Odira is the fastest woman over 800m this season and is currently ranked fourth in the world behind Georgia Hunter Bell and Hodgkinson of Great Britain and Audrey Werro of Switzerland.
Odira is the second fastest Kenyan over the distance after the great Pamela Jelimo who holds the national record of 1:54.01. Odira lies seventh on the all-time list of best 800m runners in the world thanks to her Tokyo effort.
Odira was born on April 18, 1999 in Ndonyo Village, Suna West, in Migori. She joined Ndonyo Primary School before transferring to Bondonyironge Primary School where she did her Kenya Certificate of Primary School (KCPE).
She would later join Sagero Mixed Secondary School before shifting to Nyota High School and then St Peter’s Keberesi High School on an athletics scholarship.
“I got the scholarship through my talent and it is at Keberesi that I started running in the 800m races.”
Odira showed her talent by winning the 2016 Kenya Secondary School Games nationals 800m title and the East Africa Secondary School Games crown over the same distance that year.
Kenya's Lilian Odira celebrates after winning gold in the women's 800m final during the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo on September 21, 2025.
Photo credit: Reuters
“That is how my career started and I knew I was destined for greatness,” she simply said.
Odira failed to make the Kenya team for the 2016 World Junior Championships after finishing third in the 800m national trials.
She resumed her athletics career in 2019 joining Rongai Athletics Club under coach Bernard Ouma until 2020 when Covid-19 struck and the camp was closed. She also had her first baby and the second followed soon after.
The newly minted world champion says she will compete at this year’s Kenya Prisons Service Cross Country Championships before sitting down with her coach to craft a long-term plan with the next 2028 Olympics and 2027 World Athletics Championships in mind.
