Viola Kibiwot

Kibiwot at the 2012 Olympics
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing  Kenya
IAAF World Cross Country Championships
Gold medal – first place2001 OstendJunior race
Gold medal – first place2002 DublinJunior race
Bronze medal – third place2000 VilamouraJunior race
World Junior Championships
Gold medal – first place2002 Kingston1500 m

Viola Jelagat Kibiwot (born 22 December 1983 in Keiyo District) is a runner from Kenya who specialises in the 1500 metres.

Kibiwot won her first international medal as a junior runner at the 2000 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where she took the bronze medal for Kenya. Consecutive world junior cross country titles followed at the 2001 and 2002 editions of the event, and she also claimed the gold medal over 1500 m at the 2002 World Junior Championships in Athletics.

After becoming a senior runner, she struggled to match her junior success. She was outside of the top twenty in the senior short race at the 2003 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, and again at the 2005 race. She was seventh on the track at the 2006 Commonwealth Games, but appeared to make her breakthrough over 1500 m at the 2007 World Championships in Athletics with a fifth-place finish in a personal best time of 4:02.10 minutes in the final. She narrowly missed out on a medal at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Final, coming fourth.

She competed at the 2008 Summer Olympics, but failed to build upon her progress on the global stage and did not advance beyond heats.[1] At the 2009 World Championships she did not get past semi-finals stage. Kibiwoot ran on the 2010 IAAF Diamond League circuit, but never made the top three in the event.[2] She came seventh in the 1500 m at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Kibiwot won her first senior continental medal at the 2011 African Cross Country Championships, taking the silver medal behind Mercy Cherono and helping Kenya to the team title.[3]

She was eliminated in the semi-finals of the 1500 m at the 2011 World Championships in Athletics. She changed her focus to longer distances as a result and performed better on the world stage, taking sixth at the 2012 Olympic 5000 m final and fourth at the 2013 World Championships 5000 m final. At the 2013 World Cross Country Championships she helped Kenya to the team title with her seventh-place finish. An outing over four miles on the roads in October 2013 saw her run the world best for the distance, as she completed the 4 mijl van Groningen race in 19:20 minutes.[4]

Achievements

YearCompetitionVenuePositionEventNotes
Representing  Kenya
2000 World Cross Country Championships Vilamoura, Portugal 3rd Junior race (6.29 km) 20:36
2001 World Cross Country Championships Ostend, Belgium 1st Junior race (5.9 km) 22:05
African Junior Championships[5] Réduit, Mauritius 4th 800 m 2:10.25
4th 1500 m 4:26.27
2002 World Cross Country Championships Dublin, Ireland 1st Junior race (5.962 km) 20:13
World Junior Championships Kingston, Jamaica 1st 1500 m 4:12.57
2003 World Cross Country Championships Lausanne, Switzerland 22nd Short race (4.03 km) 13:28
2005 World Cross Country Championships Saint-Étienne, France 23rd Short race (4.196 km) 14:10
2006 Commonwealth Games Melbourne, Australia 7th 1500 m 4:08.74
2007 World Championships Osaka, Japan 5th 1500 m 4:02.10
World Athletics Final Stuttgart, Germany 4th 1500 m 4:06.00
2008 Olympic Games Beijing, China 5th (heats) 1500 m 4:15.62
2009 World Championships Berlin, Germany 8th (semis) 1500 m 4:06.88
2010 Commonwealth Games New Delhi, India 7th 1500 m 4:08.79
2011 African Cross Country Championships Cape Town, South Africa 2nd Senior 8 km 27:14
2011 World Championships Daegu, South Korea 7th (semis) 1500 m 4:08.64
2012 Olympic Games London, United Kingdom 6th 5000 m 15:11.59
2013 World Cross Country Championships Bydgoszcz, Poland 7th Senior race (8 km) 24:46
2013 World Championships Moscow, Russia 4th 5000 m 15:01.67
2015 World Championships Beijing, China 4th 5000 m 14:46.16

Personal bests

References

  1. ↑ "Viola Kibiwot Bio, Stats, and Results". Olympics at Sports-Reference.com. Archived from the original on 18 April 2020. Retrieved 2 May 2018.
  2. ↑ Viola KIBIWOT. IAAF Diamond League. Retrieved on 2011-03-07. Archived 2010-07-21 at the Wayback Machine
  3. ↑ Ouma, Mark (2011-03-07). Cherono and Mwangangi victorious at inaugural Africa Cross Championships. IAAF. Retrieved on 2011-03-07.
  4. ↑ Mulkeen, Jon (2013-10-13). Kibiwot sets 4 Mile World best in Groningen as Alamirew beats Gebrselassie. IAAF. Retrieved on 2013-10-15.
  5. ↑ WORLD JUNIOR ATHLETICS HISTORY ("WJAH") African Junior Championships 2001 Archived 2011-10-23 at the Wayback Machine
This article is issued from Wikipedia. The text is licensed under Creative Commons - Attribution - Sharealike. Additional terms may apply for the media files.