Jepchirchir, Obiri and Kipyegon go for top honours
Kenya’s track stars Peres Jepchirchir, Hellen Obiri and Faith Kipyegon are among the 10 nominees for the 2020 Female World Athlete of the Year Award.
World 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot is the only Kenyan in the 10-man shortlist
Jepchirchir who last month won the world half marathon title has twice broken the distance record for women-only race (1:05:34 and 1:05:16).
She will be joined by Obiri the world 5,000m champion who is undefeated in three races over 3,000m and 5,000m besides running a world-leading 8:22.54 over 3,000m.
The final Kenyan in the list is the 2016 Olympic 1,500m winner Kipyegon who is undefeated in five races over all distances.
She also ran a world-leading performances over 800m (1:57.68) and 1,000m (2:29.15).
The three will join seven other stars for the World Athletics Awards 2020 to be held virtually on Saturday, December 5 .
The nominees were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.
The nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year despite the challenges that the global Covid-19 pandemic presented.
Kenya’s only male representative Cheruiyot dominated the 1,500m event winning three races with a world leading time of 3:28.45
Cheruiyot will face stiff challenge from the Ugandan duo of world 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei and the recently-crowned world half marathon champion Jacob Kiplimo.
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 per cent of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25 per cent of the final result.
Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Sunday, November 15.
At the conclusion of the voting process, five men and five women finalists will be announced by World Athletics where athletics fans from around the world will help select the finalists.
Eliud Kipchoge and Dalilah Muhammad were named the winners of the 2019 awards in the men’s and women’s categories respectively.
