PARIS: American sprinter Noah Lyles and Kenya’s Faith Kipyegon were named the men’s and women’s track athletes of the year by World Athletics on Monday.

Lyles was recognised for the three gold medals he won at the world championships in Budapest.

In Budapest, Lyles scorched to gold in the 100m in 9.83sec for his first global title in the short sprint.

Kipyegon clinched the women’s prize after setting three world records in the 1500m, the mile and the 5,000m.

She also completed a 1500m-5,000m double at the world championships.Sweden’s Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis won the men’s field athlete of the year award after he improved his pole vault world record to 6.23m.

Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas took the women’s field award after winning her fourth world outdoor triple jump title.

Awards were also given to Tigist Assefa of Ethiopia who sliced more than two minutes off the women’s marathon time in Berlin in September, the biggest single improvement on the mark for 40 years.

The equivalent “out of stadia” award for men went to Kelvin Kiptum, the Kenyan who ran a world record 2:00:35 in the Chicago Marathon in October, taking 34 seconds off Eliud Kipchoge’s previous record.

Published in Dawn, December 13th, 2023