Lilian Odira Reveals Her Biggest Headache Now After Surprise World Championship Gold in Tokyo

In sports, they say getting to the top is easy but staying there is the most difficult task.

This is perhaps ringing loud in the mind of newly-crowned world 800m champion Lilian Odira, who is still basking in the glory of her gold medal win at the 2025 World Championships.

Odira was the surprise winner of the 800m title, when she staged a late show of might to floor defending champion Mary Moraa and Olympics gold medalist Keely Hodgkinson who looked to be on their way to claiming the top two positions.

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The mother of two’s strong finishing kick allowed her to get ahead of both Moraa and Hodgkinson just before the line as she won the race in a new personal best time of 1:54.68, which was a new championship record, having taken down a mark set by Czech Jarmila Kratochvilov 42 years ago.

Odira says the victory has given her belief that much more can come from her but she is alive to the fact that she is now a targeted woman as everybody will be looking to bring her down.

"I am just getting started. Winning the world title is a big deal and I am happy to achieved this,” Odira said on Friday. “The real challenge now is maintaining that same level of performance going forward. However, the title serves as motivation to keep working on my racing," she added, explaining the extra pressure that comes with being the reigning world champion.

Odira was speaking at a ceremony that saw her promoted within the Kenya Prisons Service presided over by Commissioner General of Prisons Patrick Aranduh who elevated her to the rank of sergeant from constable.

The 26-year-old has confirmed that her main focus now is winning gold at the 2026 Commonwealth Games as well as the World Athletics Ultimate Championships where winners in each category will receive $150,000 (Ksh19.4 million) with the inaugural edition set to take place in Budapest, Hungary.