Linet Chepkwemoi Masai

Linet Masai

Personal information

Born

5 December 1989 (age 27)
Kapsokwony, Mount Elgon District, Kenya

Medal record

Women's athletics
Representing Kenya
World Championships
	2009 Berlin	10,000 m
	2011 Daegu	10,000 m
World Cross Country Championships
	2007 Mombasa	Junior race
	2009 Amman	Senior race
	2010 Bydgoszcz	Senior race
	2011 Punta Umbria	Senior race
	2008 Edinburgh	Senior race
African Championships
	2010 Nairobi	10,000 m

Linet Chepkwemoi Masai (born 5 December 1989) is a Kenyan long-distance runner who competes in track and cross country running events. She won her first world title in the 10,000 metres at the 2009 World Championships in Athletics.

Masai became the world junior cross country champion in 2007 and set a world junior record for the 10,000 metres at the 2008 Summer Olympics, placing fourth in the final. She was the runner-up at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships three times consecutively from 2009 to 2011. At the 2011 World Championships in Athletics, she won her second world track medal, taking third in the 10,000 m.

Masai was born in Kapsokwony town, Mount Elgon District, and was raised in from Bugaa village, four kilometres away. Born to John Barasa Masai and Leonida Cherop, she is the fourth born out of ten children. She went to Kapsagom Primary School and then Bishop Okiring Secondary school from where she graduated in 2005. She started running in 2005, when her older brother Moses Ndiema Masai won 5000 and 10000 metres at the African Junior Championships, hoping she would emulate his success. Her younger siblings Dennis, Ndiema and Magdaline are also runners. Their father John Barasa Masai is also a former runner, while Ben Jipcho is their distant uncle. She is based at the PACE Sports Management training camp in Kaptagat.

She won the women's junior race at the 2007 IAAF World Cross Country Championships held in Mombasa, Kenya. She finished fourth at the Kenyan trials for the 2007 World Championships 5000 metres race, missing the ticket to Osaka. She did, however, compete at the 2007 IAAF World Athletics Final, achieving two fourth places (3000 and 5000 metres).

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