After the voting exercise that ended on November 6, Ugandan long-distance runner Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei made it to the shortlist announced by World Athletics on Monday. The runner is among the finalists competing for the World Athlete of Year title.
“#WorldAthleticsAwards announcement! @joshuacheptege1 is one of five finalists for Male World Athlete of the Year 2021.” World Athletics tweeted.
A three-way voting process determined the finalists. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via the World Athletics social media platforms. The World Athletics Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result.
The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced at the World Athletics Awards 2021, which will be held virtually on 1st December.
Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei (born 12 September 1996) is a Ugandan long-distance runner, Olympic Gold Medalist (5000m), World Champion (10,000m), World Cross Country Champion, and World Record Holder.
Cheptegei is the tenth man in history to hold the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records concurrently, both set in 2020 and In 2017, he became the silver medalist in the 10,000 metres event at the World Championship in London. In 2018, he set a world record for the 15 km road race and became the cross country world champion in 2019. In 2020, at a road race in Monaco, he set a new world road 5 km record of 12:51, breaking through the event’s 13-minute barrier, taking 9 seconds from the previous best time of 13:00, set by Kenya’s Sammy Kipketer in 2000.
In August 2020, at the Monaco Diamond League meet, he set a new 5000 metres world record of 12:35.36, breaking Kenenisa Bekele’s 16-year-old world record of 12:37.35 set in Hengelo. On 7 October 2020, in Valencia, he set a world record time of 26:11.00 in the 10000 meters, which again improved on Kenenisa Bekele’s 15-year-old record by more than 6 seconds. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (held in the summer of 2021), he won Olympic Gold in the 5000m, and Silver in the 10,000m. All that known with nine days to go until the World Athletics Awards 2021, the names of the five finalists for Male World Athlete of the Year have been confirmed.
The five athletes, who represent five countries from three area associations, have produced some exceptional performances across a range of athletics disciplines in 2021, at the Tokyo Olympic Games, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.
The finalists are (in alphabetical order):
Joshua Cheptegei, UGA
– Olympic 5000m champion
– Olympic 10,000m silver medallist
– World-leading 8:09.55 for two miles
Ryan Crouser, USA
– Olympic and Diamond League shot put champion
– Undefeated all year
– World shot put records indoors and outdoors
Mondo Duplantis, SWE
– Olympic pole vault champion
– Diamond League pole vault champion
– European indoor pole vault champion
Eliud Kipchoge, KEN
– Olympic marathon champion
– Largest winning margin in men’s Olympic marathon since 1972
– Winner of Enschede Marathon
Karsten Warholm, NOR
– Olympic 400m hurdles champion
– Diamond League 400m hurdles champion
– World 400m hurdles record and world 300m hurdles best
