Kipyegon nominated for athlete of the year award

Double-Olympics 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon has been nominated for the prestigious World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year award set to be held in December. 

Kipyegon, in addition to defending her Olympics title at the Tokyo Games, also defeated her closest challenger Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Sifan Hassan to be crowned the Diamond League champion in Zurich. 

In winning her second Olympic gold, Kipyegon became the second woman in 1500m Olympic history to defend the title after Russia's Tatyana Kazankina who won the 1976 and 1980 titles. 

The 27-year old also became the first Kenyan female athlete to win back-to-back Olympic gold medals breaking a 33-year Olympics record held by Paula Ivan since 1988 in Seoul. 

The nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.

“As always, the World Athletics Awards will recognise athletes who have performed at the highest level across the year, taking into account not only the Olympic Games, but the one-day meeting circuits. 

We do recognise that athletes in some parts of the world faced greater challenges than others in accessing international competition this year, which complicated the nomination process.

 However, we saw some impressive breakthroughs at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and we look forward to those athletes having more opportunities to shine next year, with five World Athletics Series events and a full schedule of one-day meetings on the calendar," said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe after the shortlist. 

Kipyegon will face stiff competition from among other, Hassan who broke the world 10,000m record. She also won Olympic gold in 5000m and 10,000m as well as a bronze medal in 1500m. 

The nominees for 2021 Female World Athlete of the Year are (in alphabetical order):

Valarie Allman

- Olympic discus champion

- Diamond League discus champion

- North American discus record 

Jasmine Camacho-Quinn

- Olympic 100m hurdles champion 

- Broke the Olympic 100m hurdles record

- National record 12.26 moved to equal fourth on the world all-time list

Sifan Hassan

- Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion

- Olympic 1500m bronze medallist

- Broke the world 10,000m record

Faith Kipyegon

- Olympic 1500m champion

- Diamond League 1500m champion

- Kenyan 1500m record

Mariya Lasitsken

- Olympic high jump champion

- Diamond League high jump champion

- Jumped world-leading 2.05

Sydney McLaughlin

- Olympic 400m hurdles champion

- Olympic 4x400m champion

- Set two world 400m hurdles records

Shaunae Miller-Uibo

- Olympic 400m champion

- North American 400m record

- North American indoor 400m record

Athing Mu

- Olympic 800m and 4x400m champion

- World U20 indoor 800m record

- North American U20 records at 400m and 800m

Yulimar Rojas

- Olympic triple jump champion

- Diamond League triple jump champion

- World triple jump record

Elaine Thompson-Herah

- Olympic 100m, 200m and 4x100m champion

- Diamond League 100m champion

- National 100m and 200m records, second fastest of all time