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Ochichi Inspires All Around Her

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Published on Tuesday, 03 July 2007 05:17

Born Isabella Bosibori Ochichi, this constable with the Airport Police is one of the home bred athletes who has slowly over the last eight years built a name for herself.As it appears, she is certainly determined to improve on the bronze medal she won at the world cross country championships three years ago in the women's short course race.

Running anything between 5,000 metres and a half marathon, she is cited as the next Kenyan woman most likelyto win the world cross-country championship's senior title since Hellen Cheng'eno in 1994.Ochichi was one of the first athletes to report at the residential training camp in Kigari, Embu, last week, leaving behind a husband and life of comfort. In Embu she has to do her own laundry and provide inspiration and motivation for the younger girls at the camp.

They listen to her keenly when she speaks because her record is impeccable. She also boasts of being one of the very few Kenyans to win a medal at the Athens Olympic Games. She won a 5,000m silver medal in the Greek capital.Ochichi is a 'Born Again' christian and feels slighted by reports that Kenya risked being beaten in France next month in the world championships.

"Ochichi fears only Ochichi and she cannot leave everything behind to come and live in Embu knowing she is going to lose," she said in reference to herself.Married to road racer David Maina, managed by Gwena?l Vigot and coached by Prof. Veronique Billat when off season, she remains obedient to local coaches and is held in high esteem by coaches John Mwithiga, Julius Kirwa, David Letting and Tecla Chemabwai.

"Ochichi will produce results," said Mwithiga "I will not be surprised if she finishes on the podium at the world championships."Ochichi, now 26, has been an active athlete for the last eight years and she thanks the friends who helped her join the European circuit. In 1997 she entered little known French races andwon eight of them at only 17 years of age.Having been raised by her mother since the death of her father, Ochichi knew early in life that athletics would be the only way to secure her future. She was not disappointed. Her running landed her a job with the Kenya Police.

In 1997 friends in her native Kisii recommended she try the French circuit which had many small but lucrative races. Vigot was willing to giver her a try and entered her in nine races. She won eight of them.However, as fate would have it, Ochichi was unable to run the following year and remained out of competition for 17 months due to a severe bout of malaria. She returned to competition in September 1999 and recorded four straight road running wins.

In 2000 she won 11 French road races, setting six course records in the process. One of her record setting runs was in the famous Paris-Versailles race.She started the 2001 season with a couple of track races in Kenya, then headed back to French roads, repeating the Paris-Versailles success with a course record and taking 11 additional first places and three more course records, including a 31:29 timing in the 10km Marseilles run. She broadened her horizons by headed north to the Netherlands where she took second place in the Dam to Dam race.

Athletics Kenya dully included her in Kenya's World half Marathon team where she finished eighth in Bristol to guarantee the Kenya team a gold medal.She then joined the Police, where she benefitted from the team training. At the end of the summer season she came under the tutelage of coach Billat, who saw her enormous potential following physiological tests on her.

She tried cross-country for the first time at the end of 2001, winning two races in France. Then in 2002 she took a third place in the 4km race of the Kenya world cross trials and another third at the Dublin world cross. She improved with a 10 km personal best of 30:53. This was the world's

She then ran seven Grand Prix races including the final, recording an impressive 8:37.66 for the 3,000m in Monaco and twice flirting with a 15-minute barrier over 5,000 (15:01.42 in Rome and15:01.89 in Berlin). She was slowed by another bout of malaria.She began 2003 by winning the 8km event at the Kenyan Armed Forces cross-country and then surprised the defending world champion Edith Masai over 4 km at the Kenyan world cross trials, winning by seven seconds.

Chichi slipped to fourth over 4km at the Lausanne world cross, but bounced back on the roads with a personal best second place in Carlsbad (14:56 over 5 km) and big wins in New Orleans (31:24 over10 km) and Nice (68:42 for the half-marathon).After three second places in early European track circuit races she returned to Kenya for another second place finish behind Masai at the national championships over 5,000m and a disappointing fourth at the the World Championships trials over 5,000m.However, she found her feet on her return to Europe, cracking the 15 minute mark for the 5,000m with a strong win at Heusden (14:52.33). She followed this with a second to Masai three days later in Stockholm (14:53.51).

A confident 14:56.63 qualifying time in the first round of the Paris World Championships' 5,000m marked Ochichi as a contender, but she was forced to settle for sixth after the last-lap scramble. She closed out the track season with three more notable performances over 5,000m. They included a14:47.70 personal best for second in the Brussels GL, was fifth in the World Championship final (15:00.04) and a bronze medal at the All-African Games in Abuja, Nigeria.
Ochichi began 2004 modestly with a fifth place finish in the 4km race of the Kenyan world cross trials and another fifth at the world cross itself.On the roads, Ochichi continued her steady year-to-year progress, finally reaching the very top at the international level.

In the Carlsbad 5 km, a week after the world cross, she recorded a short-lived world road best of 14:53 as Briton Paula Radcliffe's earlier 14:51 awaited a course remeasurement. She repeated her win in the New Orleans 10 km and then took to the track with a personal best 14:46.42 win in the Hengelo 5,000m (beating Ethiopian Werknesh Kidane, among others). She followed this with another win in the Seville Grand Prix (14:55.95) a week later.In July, after qualifying comfortably for Athens in Kenya's Olympic trials, she recorded two big wins. These were over 3,000m, in the Madrid Super Grand Prix (8:37.68) and the Paris Golden League where she recorded a personal best in a world leading 8:31.32, pulling fellow Kenyans Alice Timbilil and Sally Barsosio to personal and season bests, respectively.

The 24-year-old Ochichi was clearly sharper than ever going into the Olympics, and she performed to expectations.As the pace quickened in the 5,000m final behind world record holder Elvan Abeylegesse, Ochichi kept in close contact. When Abeylegesse faded, Ochichi took the lead in an effort to burn the kick out of Ethiopia's Meseret Defar, who was sitting on her shoulder.Meseret, however, was too strong and sped past Ochichi around the final turn.The Kenyan hung on for a well-earned silver (14:48.19).After a three-week break she returned to action in Berlin, finishing a close third (14:59.69) behind Masai and Ethiopia's Berhane Adere. She is hoping for better in Monaco.