In a year an African woman was the overwhelming favourite to be crowned the best in the world, World Athletics decided to split the award into six categories, thereby denying Faith Kipyegon the best of the best among the womenfolk.
Track and Field News, one of the world’s most authoritative magazines on athletics disagrees with World Athletics and a few days ago announced the 29 year old Kenyan as its Woman Athlete Of The Year.
According to the magazine, no woman in 2023 deserves that honour than Kipyegon.
The magazine wrote: ‘Faith Kipyegon put together a campaign for the ages in ’23: undefeated, recordbreaking, awe-inspiring. No one will be surprised that the 29-year-old Kenyan mother has earned our Woman’s Athlete Of The Year honors by an overwhelming margin.
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‘Kipyegon entered the season with her status as a legend already assured, thanks to the 1500m gold medals she won at Rio’16, London ’17, Tokyo ’21, Eugene ’22 and the No. 1 World Ranking she earned in each of those years.
‘Yet she ran as hungry as ever in ‘23, committed to leaving an even bigger legacy in the sport.’
Kipyegon did not only set three world records, the most by an athlete in 2023, she also successfully completed a 1500 and 5000m double at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary.
She was undefeated in the 1500, one mile and 5000m all season (xcept in the qualifying heat of the 5000m in Budapest).