Mary Moraa. © Making of Champions on X

Mary Moraa has ended her challenging 2025 season by vowing a strong comeback while praising Lilian Odira’s breakthrough 800m victory.

Olympic 800m bronze medallist Mary Moraa has endured one of her toughest seasons in 2025, ending it with a seventh-place finish in 1:57.10, a season’s best time at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Japan.

Lilian Odira claimed her first global title in the race, crossing the finish line in a championship record time of 1:54.62. Georgia Hunter Bell and Keely Hodgkinson finished second and third in respective times of 1:54.90 and 1:54.91.

Mary Moraa, the defending champion, entered the race with a full focus on defending her title, but things did not go as planned. Altogether, the Kenyan has struggled to maintain her momentum in the 800m.

Following her unceremonious exit from the championships, Mary Moraa has penned a heartfelt message, congratulating her compatriot Lilian Odira and promised to bounce back stronger.

The 2023 world 800m champion highlighted Lilian Odira’s achievements as she extended a hand of gratitude to her for helping to ensure the title stayed in Kenya.

With the time she clocked, Lilian Odira erased the 42-year-old mark of 1:54.68 set by Czech athlete Jarmila Kratochvilova in 1983.

“A huge and hearty congratulations to my colleague and friend Lilian Odira for ensuring that the world 800m title remains in Kenya. What is so heartwarming is that she did it by breaking the 42-year-old Championships Record in 1:54.62,” Mary Moraa penned on her Facebook page.

“She becomes the seventh fastest woman in history in 800m and second fastest Kenyan after legendary Pamela Jelimo (1:54.01). Congratulations too to my little siz Sarah Moraa for finishing fourth in a huge PB 1:55.74.”

Mary Moraa revealed that now, she has to go back and assess what went wrong in her season. the dancing queen warned that she would be back stronger than ever.

“It’s back to the drawing board after seventh position in SB 1:57.30. What a season it has been. God has been faithful. I will return stronger,” she added.

In the 800m, Mary Moraa started her season with the Grand Slam Track leg in Kingston, finishing a distant eighth. She won the race at the Grand Slam Track Miami and then dipped to fifth in Philadelphia.

Mary Moraa climbed to second at the Diamond League Meeting in Stockholm, but later faded to ninth at the Prefontaine Classic.

Mary Moraa then finished a distant 12th in the 1000m at the Diamond League Meeting in Monaco before heading to the World Athletics Championships, where she finished second in her heat and won her semifinal.

In the final, it seemed like she would be the one to take the win as she was leading from the front, but she faded in the final meters of the race.