Former world champion Eunice Sum trains despite COVID-19 threat

Nairobi, March 31 (IANS) Kenya’s Eunice Sum, the 2013 world 800m champion, has said she has continued with her training alone, keeping a safe distance from her training partners in order to beat the coronavirus.

Sum, who was focused on launching her season with the Diamond League in May, had to devise new training methods, with the competition postponed to at July at the earliest, reports Xinhua news agency.

“I am able to train but I cannot do any speed work on the track because all the stadiums are closed. So, what I do is run on the road and try to do some pace variations on the road. I don’t have my training mates with me, I’m just training alone,” Sum said on Monday.

The 31-year-old has been forced to return to her home in Eldoret, after over 20 training camps in Kenya were closed down as the government battles to flatten the curve of the coronavirus spread.

“Staying motivated is a little bit difficult but I tell myself I must continue training because I don’t know what is going to come out of all this,” she added.

Last week, World Athletics confirmed that alongside Qatar and China, who had already confirmed their intention to push back their respective competitions, three more events will not be taking place as per schedule.

“The Diamond League today postpones three more meetings which had been scheduled to take place in May. An alternative calendar for the 2020 season is to be announced in due course,” World Athletics said in a statement.

“This follows the deferral of early-season events in Qatar and China last week.”

But Sum believes she needs to be in her best shape just in case the window to compete is opened as she plans to get back to her best ahead of the now postponed Tokyo Olympics in 2021.

“If the Diamond Leagues were postponed to autumn or even December that would be okay for me but the priority now is for the world to be healthy again and virus-free,” she added.

–IANS

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