Nyambura to claim lost glory at major global events
Steeplechase champion Virginia Nyambura’s only medal of pride in her cabinet is the gold medal won at the 2010 Summer Youth Olympics held in Singapore
She is now longing to win another major individual medal at the international level, hopefully, Commonwealth Games or World Athletics Championships.
After the Olympic Youth competition, she faded away from competitive races but took up a few pace setting assignments. Despite specialising in the steeplechase, she had not run over the hurdles and water jumps for the last five years until last month during the Police Championships in Nairobi.
She admitted that although she was second in the women’s 3000m steeplechase during the Police competition, she was struggling to jump over the hurdles.
“After staying for long without jumping, I was finding the barriers intimidating and I was breaking every time I came across one. At some point during the race, I almost went round one of the handles,” she said.
The only other time she wore national colours was in 2015 when she won another medal in her cabinet - silver which she earned as a member of the Kenyan medley relay team to the World Relay Championships in the Bahamas.
Nyambura said that since winning the Youth Olympic gold, she did not progress to junior and senior levels because some depressive social problems came into her life.
She however overcame the problem and moved her training base from Kapsabet in Nandi County to Nyahururu in Laikipia County.
She is using her experience in life to mentor other younger runners saying, “I advise them to always watch for red signals in friendships and relationships.”
