Kenyans keeping fingers crossed as Kipchoge targets double
Kenya’s world marathon record holders Brigid Kosgei and Eliud Kipchoge are among the 10 finalists set to contest the Female and Male World Athletics Awards during the 2019 gala in Monaco, tomorrow.
Kipchoge, who won last year’s award after setting the world record of 2:01:39 in Berlin, is a huge favourite to retain the gong following an impressive 2019 that has seen him win the London Marathon in a course record 2:02:37 in April before making history by becoming the first man to run 42km under two hours when he clocked 1:59.40 in Vienna, Austria last month.
Stiff competition
He is up against Americans world 200m champion Noah Lyles, Sam Kendricks, who won the world pole vault title, Norway’s world 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm and Ugandan world 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei.
Kosgei meanwhile, broke Briton Paula Radcliffe’s 16-year women’s world marathon record at last month’s Chicago Marathon, clocking 2:14.04 to shave a massive 81 seconds off the mark, and also won April’s London Marathon.
The Kenyan is up against Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who is the world 100m champion, Dutch middle and distance running star Sifan Hassan, who won a 1,500m and 10,000m double in Doha, American hurdler Dalilah Muhammad and Venezuelan triple jumper Julimar Rojas, both world champions from Doha.
K24 TV will air the World Athletics Awards gala live from Monaco.
