World record breakers Letesenbet Gidey and Joshua Cheptegei are nominated for Athlete of the Year

Ethiopian athlete Letesenbet Gidey has been nominated for Athlete of the Year. AFP

Paris: Ethiopia’s Letesenbet Gidey, who broke the 5,000-meter women’s world record in October, was among the nominees for Women’s World Athlete of the Year announced Tuesday.

Gidey, 22, cut more than four seconds from the previous mark with a time of 14 min 06.62sec in a specially organized race in the Spanish city of Valencia that featured flashing lights around the perimeter of the track to guide the pace of the athletes.

Uganda’s Joshua Cheptegei, who broke the men’s 10,000 meter world record in the same match with a time of 26: 11.00, was among the nominees for the men’s award announced by World Athletics on Monday.

In a season shortened by the coronavirus pandemic and deprived of the postponed Tokyo Olympics, Cheptegei also set an impressive world record at 5,000m.

Armand Duplantis was also among the top nominees for the men’s award after rewriting the pole vault record books.

At just 20 years old, the Swede surpassed the mark of the great Ukrainian Sergey Bubka by setting a new outdoor record of 6.15m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome after registering an indoor record of 6, 18 m at the beginning of the season.

Another Ugandan, Jacob Kiplimo, who recorded a world half marathon victory in a record time of 58 min 49 sec, is also among the male contenders.

The women nominees also include Faith Kipyegon of Kenya, who ran the fastest time of the year in 800 meters.

Winners will be announced at the 2020 World Athletics Awards on December 5.

Women nominated for World Athlete of the Year

Femke Bol (Netherlands), Letesenbet Gidey (Ethiopia), Sifan Hassan (Netherlands), Peres Jepchirchir (Kenya), Faith Kipyegon (Kenya), Laura Muir (Great Britain), Hellen Obiri (Kenya), Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela) , Elaine Thompson-Herah (Jamaica), Ababel Yeshaneh (Ethiopia)

Male Nominees for World Athlete of the Year

Donavan Brazier (USA), Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda), Timothy Cheruiyot (Kenya), Ryan Crouser (USA), Armand Duplantis (Sweden), Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda), Noah Lyles (USA) , Daniel Stahl (Sweden), Johannes Vetter (Germany), Karsten Warholm (Norway)