During the just concluded World Athletics Awards 2023 that was held on Monday 11th December, 2023 in Monaco, Kenyan athletes made the country proud after emerging winners in different categories. Two-time Olympics 1,500m champion Faith Kipyegon, marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum, World 800m silver medalist Emmanuel Wanyonyi and World 3000m steeplechase bronze medalist Faith Cherotich all dominated the award ceremony with their wins.
Starting with Faith Kipyegon was named Female World Athlete of the Year in track events after a stellar season. Kipyegon set world records at an incredible three distances in which she also achieved a golden double at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23.
Faith Kipyegon’s world record ratified.
First, she improved the world 1500m record to 3:49.11 in Florence, taking almost a full second off the previous mark. Just one week later, she improved the world record for that event, clocking 14:05.20 in Paris to shave 1.42 seconds from the old record. Her third world record came in Monaco, where she smashed the previous mile mark by five seconds, clocking 4:07.64. Then, in Budapest, she won her third senior world 1500m title and her first world 5000m crown.
Men’s out of stadia award went to Kelvin Kiptum. Just one year on from his marathon debut, Kelvin Kiptum now has three of the seven fastest times in history to his name having also won the TCS London Marathon in April in 2:01:25. Kiptum also achieved his world record in a World Athletics Platinum Label road race, running 2:00:35 at the Bank of America Chicago Marathon in October. This made him the first athlete to break 2:01 in a record-eligible marathon, the 24-year-old won the race by almost three and a half minutes and took 34 seconds off Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record.
Faith Cherotich and Emmanuel Wanyonyi were crowned as 2023 rising stars of the year. The two made their mark on the senior stage in 2023 after their dominance in the junior stage including World U20 golds. The Kenyan teenagers both won medals at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23, Cherotich claiming bronze in the 3000m steeplechase and Wanyonyi securing silver in the 800m.
Cherotich, who won world U20 bronze in 2021 and gold in 2022, also moved to second on the world U20 all-time list with 8:59.65 to finish third in the Diamond League Final in Eugene, while she finished fourth in the U20 race at the World Cross Country Championships. Wanyonyi became Diamond League champion in 2023, claiming the trophy in a PB of 1:42.80 following his gold medal win in 2021 world U20. He also won Diamond League races in Rabat, Paris and Xiamen and formed part of Kenya’s victorious world cross country mixed relay team.