Kenyan runner makes final list of World Athletics Award
Peres Jepchirchir of Kenya poses with her gold medal after the women's race of the 2020 World Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia, Poland, in October 17, 2020.
What you need to know:
- The 27-year-old Jepchirchir will battle Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, who set a world record of 14:06.62 over 5,000m and Dutch Sifan Hassan, who also set a world record of 18,930m in the one hour run.
- Also in contention are Yulimar Rojas from Venezuela, who stayed undefeated in four triple jump competitions indoors and outdoors, where she broke the world indoor triple jump record with 15.43m and Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah.
World half marathon champion, Peres Jepchirchir, is the last Kenyan woman standing at the World Athletics Awards 2020.
Peres Jepchirchir, who is also the women’s only half marathon world record holder, is among five athletes who made it to the final list for Female World Athlete of the Year 2020.
Both the male and female winners will be declared during the 2020 World Athletics Awards to be held virtually on December 5.
Two other Kenyans- Faith Chepng’etich and Hellen Obiri- who had been nominated for the female award, failed to make the final cut.
“In spite of the many challenges presented by the global Covid-19 pandemic this year, the five athletes, who represent five countries and four area associations, have excelled, producing brilliant performances across a range of athletics disciplines in 2020,”said a statement from World Athletics Tuesday.
Peres Jepchirchir recaptured the world half marathon title with victory in Gdynia, Poland on October 17.
Her time of one hour, 05 minutes and 16 seconds was enough to see Jepchirchir better her own women’s only half marathon world record by 18 seconds within six weeks.
Jepchirchir, the 2016 world half marathon champion, had on September 5 shattered the world record with a new time of 1:05:34 in Prague.
The 27-year-old Jepchirchir will battle Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, who set a world record of 14:06.62 over 5,000m and Dutch Sifan Hassan, who also set a world record of 18,930m in the one hour run.
Also in contention are Yulimar Rojas from Venezuela, who stayed undefeated in four triple jump competitions indoors and outdoors, where she broke the world indoor triple jump record with 15.43m and Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah.
Elaine Thompson-Herah was also undefeated in seven 100m races where she chalked world-leading 10.85 over 100m.
Kenya’s world 1,500m champion, Timothy Cheruiyot failed to make the cut for the men’s top award where Joshua Cheptegei from Uganda is among the favourites to win, having made it to the final list of fives.
Cheptegei broke world records at 5000m (12:35.36), 10,000m (26:11.00) and 5km on the roads (12:51).
The Ugandan finished fourth at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships on his debut over the distance.
Athletics Kenya (AK) has also been nominated for 2020 World Athletics Member Federation Award. This is the first time the award is featured at the World Athletics gala.
AK will battle it out with five other federations for the award where the winner will be announced at the World Athletics Awards 2020 gala.
