Rédaction Africa Links 24 with Daily Nation
Published on 2024-02-16 10:35:32
The 20th edition of the Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya) gala, which is set for March 1 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC), will be a celebration of its kind. Besides rewarding top performers from the 2023 season, the sports fraternity will celebrate the lives of the fallen heroes and heroines, including the marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum and the legendary Henry Rono.
Kiptum and Rono died five days apart this week at the ages of 24 and 72 respectively. As a result, the 2023 Soya Gala, which was initially scheduled for February 23 this year, has been postponed to March 1 to allow the world to celebrate Kiptum’s life that has touched and inspired many.
Kiptum, who died on Sunday alongside his coach Gervais Hakizimana, is among the five top nominees for the Sportsman of the Year award. His untimely death brought to a halt what perhaps could have been another monumental moment, with the 24-year-old having declared his intention to run the Rotterdam Marathon on April 14 this year in under two hours.
It took 10 months for the late Kiptum to completely change the world’s marathon running landscape, ushering in a new era with three fastest times in the history of the distance race. After breaking the marathon world record by 34 seconds at the Chicago Marathon on October 8 last year, Kiptum, who ran a new marathon world record of two hours and 35 seconds, dared the world to dream. It’s this achievement that saw the 24-year-old Kiptum deservingly earn a nomination for the 2023 Sportsman of the Year.
Kiptum’s phenomenal run in Chicago saw him break Olympic champion Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record of 2:01:09 set at Berlin Marathon on September 25, 2022. Kiptum would rewrite marathon history books as the first man to run a marathon under two hours and one minute, marking the first time a world record was set in Chicago since Moroccan Khalid Khannouchi’s feat of 2:05:42 on October 24, 1999.
Kiptum had on April 23 last year blown away the field to win the London Marathon in a course record time of 2:01:25, the second fastest time ever in marathon history. The previous course record of 2:02:37 was held by Kipchoge from 2019. His achievement was enough to have Kiptum win the 2023 World Athletics Athlete of the Year Out of Stadia Award- Male.
The late Kiptum is among two compatriots, who will battle volleyballer Simon ‘Kosirai’ Kipkorir and Kenya Sevens star Patrick Odongo for the award. The other duo from athletics is Daniel Simiu, a world 10,000m and world half marathon silver, and Emmanuel Wanyonyi, who is also the world cross country mixed relay gold medalist. Simiu settled for silver in the 10,000m at the World Athletics Championships, Budapest, Hungary on August 20 and World Half Marathon in Latvia on October 1.
The other fallen hero, Henry Rono, staged an unparalleled performance in 1978 where he broke four world records within two months, besides winning four gold medals from Commonwealth and African Games. His contribution to sports will be celebrated at the Soya gala as well.
The final shortlist for the Sportsman of the Year Category includes Kelvin Kiptum (Athletics), Daniel Simiu (Athletics), Emmanuel Wanyonyi (Athletics), Patrick Odongo (Rugby), and Simon Kipkorir (Volleyball). This event will undoubtedly be a time to remember and honor the incredible feats of these athletes and the impact they have had on the world of sports.
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