Kenyan trio nominated for World Athletics award

The Kenyan trio of world 5,000m champion Hellen Obiri, Olympic 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon and Half Marathon world record holder Peres Jepchirchir have been nominated for the Female World Athlete of the Year award.

The Kenyans are among 10 nominees in the initial shortlist for the annual award that will culminate in the World Athletics Awards gala that will be held virtually on December 5.

Obiri ended the coronavirus-ravaged season undefeated in three races over 3,000m and 5,000m while also running a world leading time of 8:22.54 over 3,000m at the final leg of the Diamond League series in Doha, Qatar.

On her part, Kipyegon enjoyed a stellar season as she remained undefeated in five races over 800m, 1000m and 1500m.

The in-form athlete twice came short of the 1,000m world record in her attempts at the Monaco Diamond League and Hengelo meeting.

Jepchirchir recently won the World Half Marathon title last month in a women-only world record of 1:05:16 lowering her own record by 18 seconds.

The 27-year-old had first smashed the world record at the Prague Half Marathon in September when she ran 1:05:34 shattering the previous record of 1:06:11 held by Ethiopia’s Gudeta.

The Kenyans will however face stiff competition from other nominees that consists of Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey who recently obliterated women’s 5000m world record and world 10,000m Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands.

Others in the shortlist are; Laura Muir (Great Britain), Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela), Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica), Ababel Yeshaneh (Ethiopia), and Femke Bol (Netherlands).

A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.

The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics’ social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a ‘like’ on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result.

Voting for the Female World Athlete of the Year closes at midnight on Sunday 15 November. At the conclusion of the voting process, five men and five women finalists will be announced by World Athletics.