World Athletics announces finalists for Female World Athlete of the Year 2020
Nov 24, 2020
Quai Antoine [Monaco], November 24 : World Athletics on Tuesday announced five finalists for the Female World Athlete of the Year 2020.
In spite of the many challenges presented by the global Covid-19 pandemic this year, the five athletes, who represent five countries and four area associations, have excelled, producing brilliant performances across a range of athletics disciplines in 2020.
The finalists are:
Letesenbet Gidey, Ethiopia: Gidey set a world record of 14:06.62 over 5000m. She was second in the 5000m at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco.
Sifan Hassan, Netherlands: Hassan set a world record of 18,930m in the one hour run. She set a European record of 29:36.67 over 10,000m, the fourth-fastest performance in history.
Peres Jepchirchir, Kenya: The Kenyan athlete won the world half-marathon title. She twice broke the world half-marathon record for a women-only race (1:05:34 and 1:05:16).
Yulimar Rojas, Venezuela: Rojas remained undefeated in four triple jump competitions indoors and outdoors. She broke the world indoor triple jump record with 15.43m.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, Jamaica: The Jamaican remained undefeated in seven 100m races. She ran a world-leading 10.85 over 100m.
The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2020 to be staged as a virtual event on December 5 and streamed live on the World Athletics YouTube channel, its Facebook page and via Twitter.
A three-way voting process determined the finalists. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via social media platforms. The Council's vote counted for 50 per cent of the result, while the Athletics Family's votes and the public votes each counted for 25 per cent of the final result.
