Eliud Kipchoge added another page to his legendary status when he was named World Athlete of the Year in the Male division at the World Athletics Awards 2019. The gala was held at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco on Saturday November 23.
Other Nominees were : Donavan Brazier (USA), Christian Coleman (USA), Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda), Timothy Cheruyiot (Kenya), Steven Gardiner (Bahamas), Sam Kendricks (USA), Noah Lyles (USA), Daniel Stahl (Sweden), Christian Taylor (USA), Karsten Warholm (Norway).
In April, Kipchoge captured his fourth victory at the London Marathon with a 2:02:37 course record, the third fastest performance of all time.
In October, Kipchoge finally broke the two-hour barrier over the 42km distance at the INEOS challenge. He clocked 1:59:40.2. It was his second attempt at the distance. In 2018 he clocked 2:03:05 .
Other attempts had been made by Ethiopian Lelisa Desisa who ran the distance in 2:04:45 and former world half marathon record holder Zersenay Tadese of Eritrea who clocked 2:10:41
For the 2019 challenge, Kipchoge had to run average distances s follows: 100m: 9.58, 200m: 19.19, 400m: 40:03, 800m: 1:40.91, 1,500m: 3:26, while the world record at 5km is 12:37.35, 10km: 26:17.53 and half marathon at 58:18.
The half marathon time is especiallyt incredible because only one person has ever run a half marathon faster: That is Geoffrey Kamworor who holds the world record.
Kipchoge’s feat did more than anything else to attract attention to a sport that over the last. After his feat, Kipchoge received congratulatory messages from world leaders including Barrack Obama and Cyril Ramaphosa.
Brother Colm O’Connell wins lifetime coaching award
O’Connell with Wilson Kipketer at the awards
No coach has accomplished more than Brother Colm O’Connell , the head coach at St Patricks Iten. Since her arrived in Kenya in 1976 since 1976, O’Connell has coached 25 world champions and four Olympic gold medallists, including Peter Rono, Wilson Kipketer and David Rudisha.
| Kenya Athletics |
