World Athlete of the Year 2023 nominees: Spotlight on Faith Kipyegon’s top rivals
By Joel Sang, October 17, 2023Faith Kipyegon had a sensational season and was ultimately nominated for the World Athlete of the Year award.
The Kenyan superstar will battle with other nominees shortlisted for the global award and recognition, but who are her top rivals?
Kipyegon, 29, smashed record after record in the year and therefore established herself as one of the greatest runners in middle-distance races.
In just her second track race, she broke the world record during the Diamond League race in Florence, Italy, by clocking 3:49.11. She did not stop there, as she went on to break another record in Paris just a week later.
In just her third race in the 5000m, she broke the record in that race at 14:05.20. She followed the Paris achievement with another Diamond League record in Monaco, where she smashed the world record for the mile by five seconds, running 4:07.64.
She won two of Kenya’s three gold medals during the World Athletics Championship in Budapest, where she doubled in 1500m and 5000m. Kipyegon also won the shorter event at the Diamond League Final, clocking 3:50.72, the fifth-fastest time in history.
At the World Athletics Road Running Championships in Riga, Latvia, she tasted her first loss of the season when she won bronze in the road mile.
Tigist Assefa (Ethiopia)
The Ethiopian had a sensational run in the Berlin Marathon in September, where the 29-year-old Ethiopian set out well inside the world record pace, according to World Athletics.
Assefa reached the halfway point in 1:06:20, putting her on course to smash the world record by more than a minute.
Following a 31:02 split between 25km and 35km, Assefa’s victory was no longer in doubt. She continued to pick up the pace in the closing stages, and she crossed the finish line in 2:11:53, taking more than two minutes off the world record – the biggest single improvement on the women’s marathon world record for 40 years.
Haruka Kitaguchi (Japan)
The Japanese superstar established herself as the world’s number-one javelin athlete this year.
Her season started strongly with a world-leading 64.50m on home soil in Hiroshima. She improved her season’s best to 65.09m when winning at the Diamond League meeting in Paris, then broke her own national record with 67.04m in Silesia.
Her winning streak included gold at the World Championships, where her final throw of 66.73m clinched victory, and at the Diamond League meeting in Brussels, where she improved on her world-leading national record with 67.38m.
Gudaf Tsegay (Ethiopia)
She is another strong contestant, given what she has managed over the season.
During the indoor season, she raced three times and won on each occasion with world-leading marks. Her performances in the mile (4:16.16) and 3000m (8:16.69) moved her to second on the world all-time lists.
She carried her winning momentum into the outdoor season across a range of distances. She won the 1500m in Rabat, the 5000m in London, and the 10,000m at Ethiopia’s world trials in Nerja, the latter with a world-leading 29:29.73.
In a dramatic 10,000m final in Budapest, Tsegay came through in the closing stages to take gold. She carried an injury going into the 5000m final and was in contention for most of the way, but faded in the closing stages.
After resting for a few weeks, she rebounded in style at the Diamond League Final in Eugene, breaking Kipyegon’s world record with a stunning 14:00.21.
Sha’Carri Richardson (USA)
Leading into the World Championships, the US sprinter had established herself as the leading contender in the 100m. She won all of her races up to mid-July, breaking 10.80 on seven occasions.
In the World Championships semifinals, though, she finished third in her heat and only just scraped through to the final. Drawn in lane nine for the final, she came through to win with a world-leading PB of 10.65.
Four days later, she stood on the podium again when she took bronze in the 200m, clocking a PB of 21.92. She wrapped up her World Championships campaign by anchoring the USA to gold in the 4x100m in 41.03, the fourth-fastest time in history.