Newly crowned world marathon record holder, Kelvin Kiptum has been nominated for the 2023 Male Athlete of the Year Award alongside 11 other athletes from around the world.
The nominations come a day after 1,500m and mile record holder Faith Kipyegon was nominated for the Female Athlete of the Year.
Kiptum is the current world record holder after winning the Chicago Marathon last Sunday in a time of 2:00.35 to become the first-ever athlete to run a marathon in under two hours and one minute.
He made a sensational marathon debut in the Valencia Marathon, where he won in a time of 2:01.53—making it the fastest marathon debut by any athlete.
He later won the London Marathon in April this year with a course record of 2:01.25.
Kiptum recently received a prize purse of Sh5 million from the Ministry of Sports after breaking the marathon record that was held by two-time Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge.
Other athletes nominated for the prestigious title include; Karsten Warholm from Norway who is the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion in the 400m, Greece long jump athlete Miltiadis Tentoglou who is a 2020 Tokyo Olympics and 2023 World Athletics gold medalist.
Also nominated is Spain’s Alvaro Martin who is a race-walker and has won two gold medals in the concluded Budapest 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Noah Lyles of the USA, who competes in the 100m and 200m races, is also nominated alongside the 2023 World champion in the decathlon Pierce LePage.
The world record holder for the indoor 1,500m and the 2,000m Jakob Ingebrigtsen from Norway also makes the nomination list. Swedens Mondo Duplantis is also nominated.
Morrocan, Soufiane Bakkalim the 2020 Tokyo Olympic champion in the 3,000m, USA’s Ryan Crouser, a two-time Olympic gold medalist and Olympic record holder in the shot put, and India’s Neeraj Chopra who is an Olympic gold medal in javelin and the first Asian to win gold in his event at the World Championship complete the list.
The voting will be closed on October 28 at midnight and the results will be announced on November 13 and 14 while the finalist will be revealed on December 11.
