Nairobi — World report holder for the ladies’s marathon, Ruth Chepng’etich, is the one Kenyan within the closing checklist of nominees for the World Athletics athletes of the 12 months awards.
The Chicago Marathon champion has been nominated within the out of stadium feminine athlete of the 12 months class the place she’s going to battle with Olympic ladies’s marathon champion Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.
Different Kenyans who had earlier been nominated however didn’t make it to the shortlist embrace: triple Olympic champion Religion Kipyegon and world 10,000m report holder Beatrice Chebet (feminine monitor athlete of the 12 months), Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi (male monitor athlete of the 12 months), world 10km report holder Agnes Ngetich (out of stadium feminine athlete of the 12 months) in addition to Olympic marathon bronze medalist Benson Kipruto (out of stadium male athlete of the 12 months).
In an announcement, World Athletics (WA) mentioned the highest two main athletes in each class had been chosen after a primary spherical of voting.
“The highest two main athletes in every class – monitor, area and out of stadium – have been chosen from the primary spherical of voting, which comprised votes from the World Athletics Council, World Athletics Household and a public vote on social media. Considered one of these two athletes will take the crown of their class,” the federation mentioned.
Chepng’etich made historical past finally month’s Chicago Marathon as the primary feminine marathoner to clock a sub-2:10 within the 42km.
She stopped the timer at 2:09:56 to etch her identify in historical past books as among the finest lengthy distance runners within the recreation.
Her contender for the title, Hassan, gained the Olympic marathon title in Paris, having gained bronze within the ladies’s 5000m and 10,000m in the identical occasion.
The Dutchwoman had a marathon debut to recollect when she clocked 2:18:33 to win in London in April final 12 months.
Followers will probably be allowed a closing spherical of voting between November 4-10 forward of the award ceremony on December 1 in Monaco.
Nonetheless champions
Regardless of lacking out on the shortlist, the aforementioned athletes have been a power to reckon with of their respective disciplines.
Kipyegon, final 12 months’s winner of the feminine monitor athlete of the 12 months award, gained her third straight Olympic title in Paris — following on from success in Rio and Tokyo.
The triple world champion additionally smashed her earlier world report within the ladies’s 1500m, clocking 3:49.04 on the Paris Diamond League in early July.
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Her fellow Kenyan, Chebet, set a world report of 28:54.14 within the ladies’s 10,000m on the Prefontaine Traditional in Oregon.
She grew to become the primary Kenyan to win the ladies’s 10,000m title on the Olympics and the second — since Vivian Cheruiyot in 2016 — to win the ladies’s 5000m.
Largely hailed as David Rudisha’s inheritor, Wanyonyi has executed justice to the tag by setting the second quickest time (1:41.11) within the males’s 800m on the Lausanne Diamond League.
This was after clinching his first title within the senior ranks on the Paris Olympics.
In the meantime, 23-year-old Ngetich clocked a world report of 28:46 on the Valencia Ibercaja 10km street race in January.
She additionally clocked 1:03:04 to win the ladies’s race on the Valencia Half Marathon, a fortnight in the past.
In the meantime, Kipruto set a course report of two:02:16 to win the Tokyo Marathon in March earlier than bagging bronze at his Olympic debut in Paris.
