Kenya’s world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge has made the final shortlist of five athletes for World Athletics Awards to be held set for in Monaco on November 23.
Kipchoge also the Olympic champion made the finalist for the second in a row having made the list in 2018 and won the prestigious award in 2018 following his dominant performance that saw him in London Marathon in 2:04:17 before smashing the world record Berlin Marathon in 2:01:39 later that year. Colombian long jumper Caterine Ibarguen won female World Athletes of the Year.
Kipchoge 35 has now stamped his status as the greatest marathon runner in his history after becoming the first man to run the marathon in under two hours in Vienna Austria.
The Kenyan has been shortlisted for the finals alongside world 10,000 metres champion Joshua Cheptegei of Uganda, American pole vault world title holder Sam Kendricks, Noah Lyles also of USA and Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm.
Kipchoge won the London Marathon in a course record of 2:02:37 in April before running 1:59:40.2 for 42km in Vienna.
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Cheptegei landed in the final after producing a dominant performance in 2019 winning the won world cross-country title in Aarhus, Denmark. The Ugandan also won world 10,000m title in a world-leading 26:48.36 in Doha and Diamond League 5000m trophy title.
Kendricks won world pole vault title in Doha; he also scaled a world-leading 6.06m to win the US title. The American has won 12 of his 17 outdoor competitions, including the Diamond League final.
Lyles is another American finalist having won world title over 200 and men’s 4x100m titles. Lyles also ran a world-leading 19.50 in Lausanne to move to fourth on the world all-time list. He is the 2019 Diamond League titles at 100m and 200m.
The fifth finalist is Warholm having won the world 400m hurdles title. The Norwegian was undefeated indoors and outdoors at all distances, including at the Diamond League final and the European Indoor Championships. He clocked world-leading 46.92, the second-fastest time in history
But world 1500m champion and three-time Diamond League trophy winner Timothy Cheruiyot who had made the cut in the initial list released last month was missout on the final five the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) released yesterday.
The winners will be determined through two way voting: The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via our social media platforms.
The Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result. Voting for the Male World Athlete of the Year closed on 4 November.
