Nairobi — World file holder for the ladies’s marathon, Ruth Chepng’etich, is the one Kenyan within the last listing of nominees for the World Athletics athletes of the yr awards.
The Chicago Marathon champion has been nominated within the out of stadium feminine athlete of the yr 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 embody: triple Olympic champion Religion Kipyegon and world 10,000m file holder Beatrice Chebet (feminine monitor athlete of the yr), Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi (male monitor athlete of the yr), world 10km file holder Agnes Ngetich (out of stadium feminine athlete of the yr) in addition to Olympic marathon bronze medalist Benson Kipruto (out of stadium male athlete of the yr).
In a press release, 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, subject 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. One in all these two athletes will take the crown of their class,” the federation mentioned.
Chepng’etich made historical past ultimately 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 title in historical past books as top-of-the-line lengthy distance runners within the sport.
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 yr.
Followers might be allowed a last 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 drive to reckon with of their respective disciplines.
Kipyegon, final yr’s winner of the feminine monitor athlete of the yr 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 file 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 file of 28:54.14 within the ladies’s 10,000m on the Prefontaine Basic in Oregon.
She turned 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 accomplished 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 file 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 file of two:02:16 to win the Tokyo Marathon in March earlier than bagging bronze at his Olympic debut in Paris.
