Kenya: Goat Kipchoge Headlines World Male Athlete of the Year Initial List

13 October 2022
Capital FM (Nairobi)
By Timothy Olobulu

Nairobi — World record holder Eliud Kipchoge headlines the initial list of 10 athletes released by World Athletics for the 2022 Male Athlete of the Year Award, which will be dished in December.

Kipchoge has already won the award twice, in 2018 and 2019, and looks to become only the third athlete in history to win it three times.

The others to have won it three or more times include Morocco's Hicham El Gourouj (3) and Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt (6).

Currently, he is tied with Kenenisa Bekele, Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson who have each won it twice. In 2018, Kipchoge won the award after he set the World Record at the Berlin Marathon and in 2019, he won it after becoming the first man to run the marathon in under two hours.

His 2019 award elicited mixed reactions as his sub-two timing was not officially recognized as it was organized in specialised circumstances, but the effect and influence the race had transcended the entire globe and motivated a whole generation.

This year, apart from breaking his own World Record in Berlin, lowering his previous mark by 30 seconds after running 2:01:09 in the streets of Berlin, Kipchoge also became the third man in history to win back to back Olympic Games titles in the marathon.

On top of that, he also won his fourth Major Marathon in Tokyo, and also lowered the Course Record.

For this year's award, he will battle it out with among others Soufiane El Bakkali of Morocco who broke Kenya's dominance in the steeplechase by winning both the Olympic and Diamond League titles.

Field athletes Mondo Duplantis (pole vault), Anderson Peters (javelin) and Pedro Pichardo (triple jump) have also been shortlisted.

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, Instagram and YouTube this week; a 'like' on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

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

Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Monday 31 October. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

Here is the initial shortlist of 10 for the awards:

Kristjan Ceh, SLO

- World discus champion

- Diamond League discus champion, throwing a national record 71.27m on the circuit in Birmingham

- European discus silver medallist

Alison dos Santos, BRA

- World 400m hurdles champion

- Diamond League 400m hurdles champion

- Ran a world-leading South American record of 46.29

Mondo Duplantis, SWE

- World pole vault champion indoors and outdoors

- Diamond League and European pole vault champion

- Improved his world record to 6.19m and 6.20m indoors, and then 6.21m outdoors

Soufiane El Bakkali, MAR

- World 3000m steeplechase champion

- Diamond League 3000m steeplechase champion

- Unbeaten in 2022, running a world-leading 7:58.28 in Rabat

Grant Holloway, USA

- World 110m hurdles champion

- World indoor 60m hurdles champion

- Diamond League 110m hurdles champion

Jakob Ingebrigtsen, NOR

- World 5000m champion, world 1500m silver medallist indoors and outdoors

- European 1500m and 5000m champion

- Diamond League 1500m champion in a world-leading 3:29.02

Eliud Kipchoge, KEN

- Improved his world marathon record to 2:01:09

- Berlin Marathon champion

- Tokyo Marathon champion

Noah Lyles, USA

- World 200m champion

- Diamond League 200m champion

- Ran a world-leading national record of 19.31 to move to third on the world all-time list

Anderson Peters, GRN

- World javelin champion

- Commonwealth javelin silver medallist

- Threw a world-leading NACAC record of 93.07m, moving to fifth on the world all-time list

Pedro Pichardo, POR

- World triple jump champion with a world-leading leap of 17.95m

- World indoor triple jump silver medallist

- European triple jump champion

Read the original article on Capital FM.

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