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An impressive season propelled Faith Kipyegon to another world recognition after becoming the first Kenyan to win the Women’s World Athlete of the Year Award.

Kipyegon, marathon record-breaker Kelvin Kiptum, Faith Cherotich, and Emmanuel Wanyonyi were announced as winners of various awards in a ceremony held in Monaco on Monday night.

Wanyonyi and Cherotich are the winners of the Male and Female Rising Star of the Year, respectively, while Kiptum is the World Athlete of the Year in the men’s out of stadia category.

Roads to recognition

Kiptum made his way to the global headlines after breaking the marathon record on the Chicago course when he ran in 2:00:35 and became the first athlete to break 2:01 in a record-eligible marathon.

He cut the tape by almost three and a half minutes and took 34 seconds off Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record.

The Chepkrio-born star, 24, now has three of the seven fastest times in history to his name, as he also won the London Marathon in 2:01:25 in April.

Kipyegon, on the other hand, was sensational in the season where she set world records in three distances and also won two golds at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Austria, in August.

She improved the world 1500m record to 3:49.11 in Florence, taking almost a full second off the previous mark, before upgrading the world record for 5000m when she timed 14:05.20 in Paris, shaving off 1.42 seconds from the previous record.

The 29-year-old did not stop there and went to Monaco, where she broke the previous record when she ran in 4:07.64. In the August World Championship, Kipyegon won her third senior world 1500m title and her first world 5000m crown.

Cherotich and Wanyonyi were the deserved winners in their respective categories owing to their season’s outputs.

They won medals at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, as Cherotich took home bronze in the 3000m steeplechase and Wanyonyi won silver in the 800m.

Cherotich, a 2021 bronze winner in the world U20 bronze 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.

On the other hand, Wanyonyi became the Diamond League champion in 2023 with a personal best of 1:42.80 and also had wins in the Rabat, Paris, and Xiamen series.

World Athletes of the Year for 2023

Women’s track: Faith Kipyegon, KEN, 1500m/mile/5000m
Women’s field: Yulimar Rojas, VEN, triple jump
Women’s out of stadia: Tigist Assefa, ETH, marathon
Men’s track: Noah Lyles, USA, 100m/200m
Men’s field: Mondo Duplantis, SWE, pole vault
Men’s out of stadia: Kelvin Kiptum, KEN, marathon