Personal information
Full name
Sheila Chepkirui Kiprotich
Nationality
Kenyan
Born
(1990-12-27) 27 December 1990 (age 33)
Sport
Country
Sport
Event(s)
Middle-, Long-distance running
Achievements and titles
Personal bests
Medal record
Women's athletics
Representing 
Kenya
Senior race
Sheila Chepkirui Kiprotich (born 27 December 1990) is a Kenyan middle- and long-distance runner who competed earlier mainly in the 1500 metres and 5000 metres. She won the bronze medal in the 10,000 metres at the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Chepkirui was the 5000 m2016 African champion, setting the championship record.
As of September 2022, she placed fourth in the 10 km road race on the world all-time list.
In her youth, Sheila Chepkirui competed in age category competitions. She defeated Yuriko Kobayashi over 1500 m at the 2005 World Youth Championships in Athletics to claim her first international gold medal. Her finishing time of in a 4:12.29 minutes was a championship record.[1] She returned to defend her title two years later, but ended up as bronze medallist at the 2007 event.[2] She failed to improve at the 2008 World Junior Championships in Athletics and did not get past the heats. She dropped out of the sport after that year.[3]
Chepkirui joined up with Kenya Defence Forces and began competing at their track competitions again around 2012.[4] She returned to top-level competition in late 2015. Good performances at national cross country running meets culminated in her finishing third at the Kenyan Cross Country Championships.[5][6][7] She was chosen for the 2016 African Cross Country Championships and in her senior debut she took the silver medal as part of a Kenyan podium sweep with Alice Aprot and Beatrice Mutai.[8] Later that year she won the 5000 m at the Kenyan Athletics Championships, and won her first senior title competing in the event at the 2016 African Championships in Athletics, setting a championship record of 15:05.45 minutes.[9][10]
In September 2022, she came close to the women-only 10 kilometres world record at the Brașov Running FestivalinBrașov, Romania. With her time of 30:07 Chepkirui, who set her 29:46 personal best in a mixed race in Valencia in 2020, broke the Romanian all-comers's record by more than two minutes, and was only six seconds off the women-only world record.[11]
Representing Kenya
Year
Competition
Venue
Position
Event
Notes
2005
Marrakech, Morocco
1st
1500 m
2007
Ostrava, Czech Republic
3rd
1500 m
2008
Bydgoszcz, Poland
15th (h)
1500 m
2016
African Cross Country Championships
Yaoundé, Cameroon
2nd
Senior race
1st
Senior team
Durban, South Africa
1st
5000 m
2017
London, United Kingdom
7th
5000 m
2022
Eugene, OR, United States
–
10,000 m
Birmingham, United Kingdom
3rd
10,000 m
