Eunice Jepkoech Sum (born 10 April 1988) is a Kenyan

middle-distance runner Middle-distance running events are track races longer than sprints, up to 3000 metres. The standard middle distances are the 800 metres, 1500 metres and mile run, although the 3000 metres may also be classified as a middle-distance event. The 1 ...

who specializes in the

800 metres The 800 metres, or meters ( US spelling), is a common track running event. It is the shortest commonly run middle-distance running event. The 800 metres is run over two laps of an outdoor (400-metre) track and has been an Olympic event since the ...

. She was the 2013 World champion and won the bronze medal in

2015 File:2015 Events Collage new.png, From top left, clockwise: Civil service in remembrance of November 2015 Paris attacks; Germanwings Flight 9525 was purposely crashed into the French Alps; the rubble of residences in Kathmandu following the Apri ...

. Sum took a silver and a gold at the

2012 File:2012 Events Collage V3.png, From left, clockwise: The passenger cruise ship Costa Concordia lies capsized after the Costa Concordia disaster; Damage to Casino Pier in Seaside Heights, New Jersey as a result of Hurricane Sandy; People gather ...

and

2014 African Championships in Athletics The 2014 African Championships in Athletics was held in Marrakech, Morocco from 10 to 14 August 2014. The competition was the 19th edition of Africa senior championships. The competition served as preparation to African athletes for the next conti ...

respectively. She was also

2014 Commonwealth Games The 2014 Commonwealth Games ( gd, Geamannan a' Cho-fhlaitheis 2014), officially known as the XX Commonwealth Games and commonly known as Glasgow 2014, ( sco, Glesca 2014 or Glesga 2014; gd, Glaschu 2014), was an international multi-sport ev ...

gold medallist and a three-time successive

Diamond League The Diamond League is an annual series of elite track and field athletic competitions comprising fourteen of the best invitational athletics meetings. The series sits in the top tier of the World Athletics (formerly known as the IAAF) one-day mee ...

winner in 2013–15.

Career

Sum was born in the village of Kesses in

Uasin Gishu County Uasin Gishu County is one of the 47 counties of Kenya, counties of Kenya located in the former Rift Valley Province. Eldoret has the county's largest population center as well as its administrative and commercial center. “It lies between longi ...

in the former

Rift Valley Province Rift Valley Province ( sw, Mkoa wa Bonde la Ufa) of Kenya, bordering Uganda, was one of Kenya's eight provinces, before the Kenyan general election, 2013. Rift Valley Province was the largest and one of the most economically important provinces i ...

and competed in the

heptathlon A heptathlon is a track and field combined events contest made up of seven events. The name derives from the Greek επτά (hepta, meaning "seven") and ἄθλος (áthlos, or ἄθλον, áthlon, meaning "competition"). A competitor in a hept ...

and

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

at school. She gave birth to a daughter Diana Jeruto in 2008 and only began a full-time athletics career in 2009 after being spotted competing in a heptathlon event by former

world champion

Janeth Jepkosgei Janeth Jepkosgei Busienei (born 13 December 1983) is a Kenyan middle distance runner and former world champion. Early career Janeth, nicknamed "Eldoret Express" is from Kabirirsang, near Kapsabet. Famous athletes Wilson Kipketer and Wilfre ...

. At her invitation, Sum moved to

Eldoret Eldoret is a principal town in the Rift Valley region of Kenya and serves as the capital of Uasin Gishu County. The town was referred to by white settlers as Farm 64, 64 and colloquially by locals as 'Sisibo'. As per the 2019 Kenya Population ...

to train with Jepkosgei's group.Sum rolls to Daegu under Jepkosgei's wing
Capital FM. 3 August 2011. (Retrieved on 2014-08-25).Sub two zero sum game
IAAF. 13 May 2014. (Retrieved on 2014-08-25). She made her international championship début in the

at the

2010 African Championships in Athletics The 2010 African Championships in Athletics was held in Nairobi, Kenya from 28 July to 1 August 2010. Background The African Championships in Athletics were held in Kenya for the first time. Previously two major athletics events have been held i ...

Nairobi Nairobi ( ) is the capital and largest city of Kenya. The name is derived from the Maasai phrase ''Enkare Nairobi'', which translates to "place of cool waters", a reference to the Nairobi River which flows through the city. The city proper ha ...

, but failed to make the final. In 2011, Sum set a personal best time of 1:59.66 in finishing second over 800 m at the Kenyan championships. This performance qualified Sum for the event at the

2011 World Championships in Athletics The 13th IAAF World Championships in Athletics () was an international athletics competition that was held in Daegu, South Korea. It started on 27 August 2011 and finished on 4 September 2011. The United States topped the medal standings in th ...

Daegu Daegu (, , literally 'large hill', 대구광역시), formerly spelled Taegu and officially known as the Daegu Metropolitan City, is a city in South Korea. It is the third-largest urban agglomeration in South Korea after Seoul and Busan; it is ...

South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is a country in East Asia, constituting the southern part of the Korea, Korean Peninsula and sharing a Korean Demilitarized Zone, land border with North Korea. Its western border is formed ...

, where she reached the semi finals. Sum won a silver medal – her first medal in international competition – in the 800 m at the

2012 African Championships in Athletics The 2012 African Championships in Athletics was held at the Stade Charles de Gaulle in Porto Novo, Benin from 27 June to 1 July 2012. It was the first time that Benin had hosted the event. Medal summary Men Women Medal table Participatin ...

Porto-Novo Porto-Novo (Portuguese: "New Port", , ; yo, Àjàṣẹ́, ), also known as Hogbonu and Ajashe, is the capital of Benin. The commune covers an area of and as of 2002 had a population of 223,552 people. Situated on an inlet of the Gulf of Gu ...

, Benin. She ran a personal best of 1:59.13 in the final, finishing two hundredths of a second behind Burundi's

Francine Niyonsaba Francine Niyonsaba (born May 5, 1993) is a Burundian runner, who specialized in the 800 metres and shifted to longer distances in 2019. She was the 2016 Rio Olympics silver medalist in the women's 800 metres. Her silver medal was the first Olympi ...

. Sum then competed in the 1500 m at the London Olympics, but finished a disappointing 10th in her heat and failed to qualify for the semi finals. Sum progressed to the highest ranks of international competition in 2013, reaching her first global final and defeating Olympic champion and home favourite

Mariya Savinova Mariya Sergeyevna Savinova (russian: Мария Сергеевна Савинова; born 13 August 1985) is a Russian former athlete who specialized in the 800-metres event. In 2017, she was found guilty of doping and was subsequently suspen ...

to win a surprise 800 m gold in a personal best time of 1:57.38 at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Moscow Moscow ( , US chiefly ; rus, links=no, Москва, r=Moskva, p=mɐskˈva, a=Москва.ogg) is the capital and largest city of Russia. The city stands on the Moskva River in Central Russia, with a population estimated at 13.0 million ...

. The Kenyan defeated Savinova again at the

Weltklasse Zürich Weltklasse Zürich ( en, World Class Zurich) is an annual, invitation-only, world-class track and field meeting at the Letzigrund in Zürich, Switzerland, generally held at the end of August or beginning of September. Previously one of the IAAF G ...

meeting to add the

2013 Diamond League The 2013 IAAF Diamond League is the fourth edition of the Diamond League, an annual series of fourteen one-day track and field meetings. The series began on 10 May in Doha, Qatar and ended on 6 September in Brussels, Belgium. Calendar Results ...

crown in the 800 m to her world title. She won the 800 m at the

Personal life

Sum is the first cousin of

Alfred Kirwa Yego Alfred Kirwa Yego (born 28 November 1986 in Eldoret) is a Kenyan middle-distance runner who specializes in the 800 metres. He is best known for winning the gold medal in the 800 m at the 2007 World Championships. Yego competed at the 2005 Worl ...

, the 2007 world champion in the 800 metres. She is a fan of

Chelsea FC Chelsea Football Club is an English professional football club based in Fulham, West London. Founded in 1905, they play their home games at Stamford Bridge. The club competes in the Premier League, the top division of English football. Th ...

Achievements

International competitions

Circuit wins and titles, National championships

800 m overall winner (3): Diamond blue

2013,

2014,

2015 :: 800 metres wins, other events specified in parenthesis :*

2013 File:2013 Events Collage V2.png, From left, clockwise: Edward Snowden becomes internationally famous for leaking classified NSA wiretapping information; Typhoon Haiyan kills over 6,000 in the Philippines and Southeast Asia; The Dhaka garment fact ...

(2): Stockholm DN Galan,

Zürich Weltklasse , neighboring_municipalities = Adliswil, Dübendorf, Fällanden, Kilchberg, Maur, Oberengstringen, Opfikon, Regensdorf, Rümlang, Schlieren, Stallikon, Uitikon, Urdorf, Wallisellen, Zollikon , twintowns = Kunming, San Francisco Zürich () ...

2014 File:2014 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: Stocking up supplies and personal protective equipment (PPE) for the Western African Ebola virus epidemic; Citizens examining the ruins after the Chibok schoolgirls kidnapping; Bundles of wat ...

(4): Doha Qatar Athletic Super Grand Prix, Rome Golden Gala, Oslo Bislett Games (), Lausanne Athletissima (SB) :*

(5):

Shanghai Golden Grand Prix The Diamond League Shanghai is an annual athletics event at the Shanghai Stadium in Shanghai, China as part of the Diamond League. The meeting was founded as the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix in 2005. The meet assumed its current name in 2010. From ...

, Eugene Prefontaine Classic (), Paris Meeting (WL), London Anniversary Games, Zürich *

Kenyan Athletics Championships The Kenyan Athletics Championships is an annual track and field meeting which serves as Kenya's national championships for the sport. Athletics Kenya, the country's governing body for athletics organises the event. The championships is usually hel ...

(2): 2012, 2014

Personal bests

1:56.99 (

Paris Paris () is the capital and most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), making it the 30th most densely populated city in the world in 2020. S ...

2015) *

1500 metres The 1500 metres or 1,500-metre run (typically pronounced 'fifteen-hundred metres') is the foremost middle distance track event in athletics. The distance has been contested at the Summer Olympics since 1896 and the World Championships in Athletic ...

4:01.54 ( Eugene 2014) *

3000 metres The 3000 metres or 3000-metre run is a track running event, also commonly known as the "3K" or "3K run", where 7.5 laps are run around an outdoor 400 m track, or 15 laps around a 200 m indoor track. It is debated whether the 3000m shoul ...

8:53.12 ( Eugene 2012)

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sum, Eunice Jepkoech Kenyan female middle-distance runners 1988 births Living people Olympic athletes of Kenya Athletes (track and field) at the 2012 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2016 Summer Olympics Athletes (track and field) at the 2014 Commonwealth Games World Athletics Championships athletes for Kenya World Athletics Championships medalists Commonwealth Games gold medallists for Kenya Commonwealth Games medallists in athletics Diamond League winners IAAF Continental Cup winners World Athletics Championships winners People from Uasin Gishu County Athletes (track and field) at the 2020 Summer Olympics