Preparations for the 21st edition of the Sports Personality of the Year Awards are complete, with the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) set to host the gala on April 16, 2025.

The gala awards with the theme ‘Celebrating Women’s Excellence in Sports’ will witness several sports personalities rewarded in 11 categories including Sports Woman of the Year, Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman with a Disability, a Sportsman with Disability, Coach of the Year, Sports Team Women, Sports Team Men, Schools Girls Team, Schools Boys Team, Schools Coach of the Year and Hall of Fame. 

SOYA founder and five-times World Cross Country champion Paul Tergat said that as the awards gala celebrates its 21 years of existence, the focus this year will be on celebrating women who performed exemplary well in 2024. He thanked the sponsors and partners for their continued support of the event over the years. 

“Moving forward, we plan to make this more than just a gala award and introduce other activities that will be done to help sports personalities, plan for their short season in the sporting arena and their future,” Tergat said. 

In the sportswoman of the year category, double Olympic gold medallist Beatrice Chebet is among the top nominees after the list was whittled down to five.

She will compete for the top award against Kenya’s most decorated Olympian Faith Kipyegon, World women’s marathon record holder Ruth Chepngetich, Boston and New York Marathon winner Hellen Obiri, and youngster Faith Cherotich. 

Chebet 25, enjoyed a successful 2024 where despite winning two gold medals at the Paris Olympics (5000m and 10000m), she also successfully defended her World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, and broke the 10000m world record during the Prefontaine Classic leg of the Diamond League where she clocked 28:54.14.

She would later break the 5km world record in December 2024 at the Cursa dels Nassos where she clocked 13:54, becoming the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier on any surface. The previous world record of 14:13 was held by Agnes Jebet. 

Kipyegon, a perennial winner of the SOYA award, broke her 1500m world record by seven-hundredths of a second, running 3:49.04. She also won the Olympic 1500m gold medal and 5000m silver medal at the Paris 2024 Games. 

In the sportsman of the year category, boxer Boniface Mugunde who earned Kenya its first African boxing title since Nick Okoth in 2017, is among the five finalists in the nominations list.

Mugunde who won the light middleweight title in Kinsasha, DRC during the Africa Boxing Confederation Championships will be facing off against Nairobi Thunders’ Albert Odero and athletes Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Ronald Kwemoi, and Benson Kipruto.  

Odero was voted the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) league’s Most Valuable Player. Wanyonyi broke the world road mile record in a time of 3:54.56 at the Adizero Road to Records event in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and also won the 800m Olympic Gold medal in Paris. 

Japan-based Ronald Kwemoi became the first Kenyan to win a medal in the men’s 5000m at the Olympics since Eliud Kipchoge in the Beijing 2008 Summer Games and Benson Kipruto 34, recorded the second fastest time in a men’s marathon when he clocked 2:02:16 as he won the Tokyo Marathon. He also won the marathon bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.