Faith Kipyegon makes history as Kenyans sweep World Athlete of the Year Awards

ATHLETICS Faith Kipyegon makes history as Kenyans sweep World Athlete of the Year Awards

Mark Kinyanjui 23:29 - 11.12.2023

Kipyegon fended off stern competition to win the highly coveted award, while fellow Kenyans Faith Cherotich and Emmanuel Wanyonyi have both won the Rising Star of the Year awards.

Double world record holder record holder Faith Kipyegon became the first Kenyan to win the Women's World Athlete of the Year for track events after enjoying an impeccable 2023 season.

Kipyegon, who was expected by many to win the award, managed to fend off competition from other fantastic competitors to claim the award.

Fellow Kenyans Emanuel Wanyonyi and Faith Cherotich have also walked away with awards for the Male and Female Rising Star of the Year respectively. 

Kipyegon set world records in an incredible three distances during a season in which she also achieved a golden double at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest.

First, the 29-year-old Kenyan improved the world 1500m record to 3:49.11 in Florence, taking almost a full second off the previous mark. 

Just one week later, and despite having raced the 5000m just twice before, she improved the world record for that event, too, clocking 14:05.20 in Paris to shave 1.42 seconds from the previous record. Her record was however later broken by Ethiopia's Gudaf Tsegay.

Her third world record came in Monaco, where she smashed the previous mile mark by five seconds, clocking 4:07.64.

Then, in Budapest, she won her third senior world 1500m title and her first world 5000m crown.

World marathon record holder Kelvin Kiptum also achieved his world record in a World Athletics Platinum Label road race, running 2:00:35 at the Chicago Marathon in October.

The 24-year-old became the first athlete to break the 2:01 barrier in a record-eligible marathon, the Kenyan took 34 seconds off Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record.

Just one year on from his marathon debut, Kiptum now has three of the seven fastest times in history to his name having also won the London Marathon in April in 2:01:25.

Cherotich and Wanyonyi, who are World U20 champions, made their mark on the senior stage in 2023.

The Kenyan teenagers both won medals at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, Cherotich claiming bronze in the 3000m steeplechase and Wanyonyi securing silver in the 800m.

Cherotich, who won world U20 bronze in 2021 and gold in 2022, also moved to second on the world U20 all-time list with 8:59.65 to finish third in the Diamond League Final in Eugene, while she finished fourth in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships.

As well as his world medal win, 2021 world U20 gold medallist Wanyonyi became Diamond League champion in 2023, claiming the trophy in a PB of 1:42.80. He also won Diamond League races in Rabat, Paris, and Xiamen and formed part of Kenya’s victorious world cross country mixed relay team.

In the men’s track category, Noah Lyles has walked away with the award after completing a treble of gold medals in the 100, 200, and 4 by 100 meters categories at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest back in August.

Lyles also achieved an individual double title at the World Championships in Budapest, winning 100m gold and retaining his 200m title before forming part of USA’s victorious 4x100m team.

The 26-year-old won the 100m in 9.83 – which saw him end the season as joint world leader – and the 200m in 19.52.

 He went even faster at the Diamond League meeting in London, clocking 19.47 to maintain his position as world 200m leader for the sixth consecutive year, during a season in which he was undefeated in six 200m finals.

Tigiset Asefa has won the Women’s Out of Track award, with Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas winning the field events awards in the men's and women’s categories respectively.

The moment of the year for Assefa came at the Berlin Marathon in September, when the 27-year-old Ethiopian ran 2:11:53, smashing the world record by two minutes and 14 seconds and achieving the biggest single improvement on the mark for 40 years.

She finished almost six minutes ahead of her nearest rival after clocking 1:06:20 for the first half and an even faster 1:05:33 for the second half – a time that just seven women have beaten this year in a standalone half marathon.

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