WORLD ATHLETE AWARDS: AFRICA’S JEPCHIRCHIR, GIDEY ON FINAL LIST FEMALE ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

World Half Marathon Champion, Kenya’s Peres Jepchirchir has been shortlisted in the final list for the women category at the World Athletics Awards 2020.

Pere Jechirchir who is also the only Kenya woman on the race and holds the world record, is among the five athletes who made it to the final list for Female World Athlete of the Year 2020.

The event which holds on December 5, 2020, saw two other Kenyan female athletes that were nominated slipped off as they could not make the cut off to the final five list. They are World 5,000m Champion and Olympic 1,500m Champion, Faith Chepng’etich.

The Kenyan half marathon star will battle fellow African star, Ethiopa’s Letesenbet Gidey, who set a world record of 14,06,62 over 5,000m.

The final five list also include Dutch female athlete, Sifan Hassan who set a world record of 18,930m in the one hour run. Also in contention is Venezuela’s Yuimar Rojas who remains undefeated in four Triple Jump Competitions Indoors and Outdoors where she broke the World Indoor Triple Jump record with 15.53m.

Jamiaca’s Elaine Thompson-Herah who has also remain undefeated in seven 100m races with world-leading 10.85 over 100m makes the final five in the list.

The World Athletics body expressed excitement that this year’s event will hold,

“In spite of the many challenges presented by the global Covid-19 pandemic this year, the five athletes, who represent five countries and four area associations, have excelled, producing brilliant performances across a range of athletics disciplines in 2020”  said statement from World Athletics, Tuesday.

The World Athletics Awards is the biggest global athletics award and fans of the two Africa athletes in the final Female Athlete of the Year Awards list will be yawning for one them to become victorious at the World Athletics gala (Virtual Awards ceremony).