Uganda's Cheptegei nominated for Male Athlete of the year by IAA

Kenneth MUKISA

Uganda’s golden boy Joshua Cheptegei has been nominated by the World Athletics for male World Athlete of the year.

He won the 5000m Olympic gold and the 10000m silver at the 2020 Tokyo games.

With a time of 12:58.15, Cheptegei became the first Ugandan to win the event as he bagged the Olympic gold that has eluded him for so long.

The Ugandan icon will battle with nine other outstanding performer who also include Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge who successfully defended his Marathon Olympic crown at the 2020 Tokyo games.

By retaining the Olympic title, Kipchoge joined Ethiopia’s Abebe Bikila (1960 and 1964) and East German Waldemar Cierpinski (1976 and 1980) who are the other two men to have retained an Olympic title in the men’s marathon.

The fans will vote the winner online via the World Athletics social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

World Athletics council will vote by email and their vote will count 50% of the result while the World Athletics family’s vote and public votes will each count 25% of the final result. Voting will close on Saturday,6th November at midnight.

Five men and five women finalists will be announced by World Athletics and the winners will be revealed at the World Athletics Awards in December.

The full list of nominees for 2021 Male World Athlete

•Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda
– Olympic 5000m champion
– Olympic 10,000m silver medallist
– World-leading 8:09.55 for two miles

•Ryan Crouser, USA
– Olympic and Diamond League shot put champion
– Undefeated all year
– World shot put records indoors and outdoors

•Mondo Duplantis, Sweden
– Olympic pole vault champion
– Diamond League pole vault champion
– European indoor pole vault champion

•Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Norway
– Olympic 1500m champion
– European indoor 1500m champion
– European 1500m and 5000m records

Eliud Kipchoge, Kenya
– Olympic marathon champion
– Largest winning margin in men’s Olympic marathon since 1972
– Winner of Enschede Marathon

•Pedro Pichardo, Portugal
– Olympic triple jump champion
– Diamond League triple jump champion
– European indoor triple jump champion

•Daniel Stahl, Sweden
– Olympic discus champion
– Diamond League discus champion
– Threw world-leading 71.40m

•Miltiadis Tentoglou, Greece
– Olympic long jump champion
– European indoor long jump champion
– Jumped world-leading 8.60m

•Damian Warner, CAN
– Olympic decathlon champion
– Winner at the Götzis Hypo Meeting
– National and Olympic record of 9018, moved to fourth on the world all-time list

•Karsten Warholm, Norway
– Olympic 400m hurdles champion
– Diamond League 400m hurdles champion
– World 400m hurdles record and world 300m hurdles best