Best of them All: Kipyegon, Kiptum crowned Africa's finest athletes

Kenyan athletes and coaches once again dominated the Confederation of Africa Athletics (CAA) for 2023, scooping six out of the 11 awards.

The country swept all the top awards in the Male and Female Athlete of the Year and Male and Female Rising Athletes of the Year. 

Multi-world record holder Faith Kipyegon and marathon world record holder Kelvin Kiptum were declared Africa’s finest female and male athletes.

CAA also announced world 800 metres silver medallist Emmanuel Wanyonyi and world 3,000m steeplechase bronze medallist Faith Cherotich as the Rising male and female athletes.

Kipyegon’s coach, Patrick Sang, was declared Coach of the Year 2023, while Wanyonyi’s coach, the 2007 World 800m champion Janeth Jepkosgei, was named Africa’s Rising Coach of the Year 2023.

Kipyegon beat Ethiopian athletes - marathon world record holder Tigist Assefa and world 10,000m champion Gudaf  Tsegay to second and third places, respectively.

Kipyegon was, without a doubt, the most outstanding athlete in 2023.

Kipyegon was unbeatable in the track in 2023, and it was not only about the wins but how she achieved the victories.

She broke three world records in less than two months, and even though the 5,000 metres record was bettered in Eugene by Tsegay, she is still the holder of the 1500m and the Mile world records.

She set the 1500m and the mile records in nine days in June.

Kipyegon became the first athlete in Diamond League history to break a world record in multiple disciplines and the first to set more than one world record in a single season.

While her 1500m world record of 3:49.11 in Florence had been coming, her 5,000m record in Paris came out of the blue, with Kipyegon even admitting that she was tired before she clocked 14:05.20 at the Stade Charlety.

A month later in Monaco, she completed her hat-track of world records with 4:07.64 in the mile, breaking the previous record, which Sifan Hassan had set at the same Diamond League meeting four years earlier.

Tsegay would later break Kipyegon’s 5,000m world record in a new time of 14:00.21 at the Prefontaine Classic.

The 29-year-old Kipyegon got her first gold medal in 1,500m, her third world title over the distance before crowning it up with another gold medal over 5000m.

Kiptum edged out Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali, who retained his world and Diamond League 3,000m steeplechase titles and world triple jump champion Hugues Fabrice Zango from Burkina Faso to second and third places in that order.

Kiptum shattered the marathon world record by 34 seconds at the Chicago Marathon on October 8, clocking two hours and 35 seconds to crush Olympic marathon champion Eliud Kipchoge’s previous world record of 2:01:09.

That saw Kiptum, who turned 24 on December 2, make history as the first man to run a marathon under two hours and one minute.

Kiptum had on April 23 blown away the field to win the London Marathon capital in a course record time of 2:01: 25 seconds, the second fastest time ever in a marathon at the time.

Even though Wanyonyi, 19, lost to Canadian Marco Arop to settle for silver medal at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, in August, he claimed revenge against Arop to win the Diamond League Trophy.

Wanyonyi was part of the Kenyan quartet that won the mixed relays title during the World Athletics Cross Country Championships held February 19 in Bathurst, Australia.

Cherotich, who had just turned 19 on July 13, collected bronze in women’s 3,000m steeplechase, becoming the youngest athlete to finish on the podium at the world championships.

Kenya also collected four out of eight awards on the night during thecontroversial World Athletics Awards Gala on December 12.

Kipyegon was declared World Athlete of the Year- Female Track while Kiptum was named World Athlete of the Year- Out of Stadia Events.

Cherotich and Wanyonyi won the Rising Stars awards.

World Athlete of the Year - Female and Male Awards - were done away but instead World Athletics split each award to three categories- Track, Sprints and Out of Stadia - to the amusement of the attendees.

The move got the athletes by surprise.