In June last year, the three-time Olympic champion Anita Wlodarczyk of Poland sustained a left thigh injury that required surgery.
Wlodarczyk, 37, sustained the injury while chasing down a thief who tried to break into her car.
Though Wlodarczyk single-handedly apprehended the thief and handed him to the police, she would be left nursing an injury that locked her out of competition for 10 months.
However, it was all smiles when Wlodarczyk landed in Nairobi on Tuesday night, ready to put her Absa Kip Keino Classic title on the line.
“I only started training in December last year after going through rehabilitation after the injury,” said Wlodarczyk.
Wlodarczyk hopes to use the World Athletics Continental Tour as a launching pad to this year’s World Athletics Championships scheduled for August 19 to 27 in Budapest, Hungary.
“I am happy to be back in Nairobi since I loved the atmosphere at the competition venue. Kenyan people are warm and receptive. I love the food here,” said Wlodarczyk.
Wlodarczyk, who has broken the hammer throw world record twice, will be eying her fifth world title in Budapest after previous success in 2009 Berlin, 2013 Moscow, 2015 Beijing and 2017 London.
“Realistically, I want to start with 75 metres at the Kip Keino Classic before gradually progressing to 78m in Budapest,” said Wlodarczyk.
Wlodarczyk has a personal best 82.29m set when retaining her Olympics title at 2016 Rio Summer Games.
Wlodarczyk, who staged a successful Olympic title defence at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games, broke the world record for the first time when winning her maiden world crown at the 2009 Berlin championships in 77.96m.
She also holds four European Championships titles and two European Team Championships titles.
