Cheptegei lands third straight World Athletics nomination
Joshua Cheptegei is an iconic figure in Uganda’s sport. He is arguably the country’s greatest athlete ever after he won two medals at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in Japan.
Following that delight in Asia, the global long-distance running star was this week named among nominees for the Male Athlete of the Year Award by World Athletics.
The 25-year-old will compete for the top prize with nine other Olympic champions, all who are subject to a vote by World Athletics Council, World Athletics Members and the global fan audience.
Cheptegei was nominated in 2019 and 2020 but upon making the final shortlist, he lost to Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge and Swede vaulter Armand Duplantis respectively.
Now after bagging a 10000m silver medal behind Ethiopian Selemon Barega and the 5000m gold in Tokyo, Cheptegei is counting his chances again.
He is however up against Kipchoge again, who won the Enschede Marathon in Netherlands back in April before retaining his Olympic title in Sapporo with the biggest margin of time since 1972.
Cheptegei’s quest is tougher though because of American Ryan Crouser who broke both indoor and outdoor world records for shot put before claiming the Olympic title and Diamond League trophy. Crouser was unbeaten all year.
Besides, Norwegian Karsten Warholm has had a rather stellar year which involved setting the world best time over 300m hurdles before breaking the 400m hurdles world record to 46.70 seconds in front of his home crowd on July 1.
Warholm followed it up with an Olympic gold medal and a Diamond League trophy. Duplantis too rarely had a bad day at office as he took the European indoor, Olympic and Diamond League honours in pole vault.
The voting process where the World Athletics Council makes 50 percent, World Athletics Family makes 25 percent with fans on social media contributing 25 percent, runs until November 6.
A five-man shortlist will then be named before the Award winner is announced in December.
WORLD ATHLETICS AWARDS
MALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD
NOMINEES: Joshua Cheptegei (UGA), Ryan Crouser (USA), Mondo Duplantis (SWE), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR), Eliud Kipchoge (KEN), Pedro Pichardo (POR), Daniel Stahl (SWE), Miltiadis Tentoglou (GRE), Damian Warner (CAN), Karsten Warholm (NOR)
WORLD ATHLETICS AWARDS
CAST OF WINNERS - MEN’S AWARD
2009: Usain Bolt (JAM)
2010: David Rudisha (KEN)
2011: Usain Bolt (JAM)
2012: Usain Bolt (JAM)
2013: Usain Bolt (JAM)
2014: Renaud Lavillenie (FRA)
2015: Ashton Eaton (USA)
2016: Usain Bolt (JAM)
2017: Mutaz Essa Barshim (QAT)
2018: Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)
2019: Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)
2020: Mondo Duplantis (SWE)
CHEPTEGEI PROFILE
Date of birth: September 12, 1996
Major Races: 5000m, 10000m
Personal Bests: 5000m (12:35.36), 10000m (26:11.00)
Coach: Addy Ruiter
Manager: Jurrie van der Velden
CHEPTEGEI’S PERSONAL BESTS
TRACK
1500m: 3:37.82 (Nijmegen 2016)
3000m: 7:33.24 (Ostrava 2021)
2-mile: 8:07.54 NR (Stanford 2019)
5000m: 12:35.36 WR (Monaco 2020)
10000m: 26:11.00 WR (Valencia 2020)
ROAD
5km: 12:51 WR (Monaco 2020)
10km: 26:38 NR (Valencia 2019)
15km: 41:05 WR (Nijmegen 2018)
Denotes: NR - National Record, WR - World Record, WB - World Best, Personal Best - PB
LAST 15 RACES FOR CHEPTEGEI
2021
Feb 14: 1st Monaco Run
Apr 24: 3rd 1500m UAF Trials
May 19: 1st 3000m Ostrava Golden Spike
Jun 10: 6th 5000m Rome DL Meeting
Jul 31: 2nd 10000m Tokyo Olympics
Aug 3: 5th 5000m Heat 2 Tokyo Olympics
Aug 6: 1st 5000m Final Tokyo Olympics
Aug 21: 1st 2-Mile Eugene DL
2020
Feb 16: 5K World Record
Aug 14: 5000m World Record
Oct 7: 10000m World Record
Oct 17: 4th World Half-Marathon Champs
2019
Dec 1: 10K World Record
Oct 6: World 10000m Gold
Aug 29: 5000m Diamond League Trophy
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