Pole vaulter, triple jumper take World Athlete of the Year honours

World Athletics (WA) announced on Saturday that Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis and Venezuelan triple jumper Yulimar Rojas won the titles of Athletes of the Year. Duplantis broke the pole vault world record on multiple occasions this year, and Rojas set the triple jump indoor world record. While both of these athletes are incredibly deserving of their awards, the news came as a surprise to many running fans around the world. The list of finalists for the awards included Joshua Cheptegei, Karsten Warholm, Letesenbet Gidey and several other record-breaking track athletes. 

Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas named World Athletes of the Year.

?: https://t.co/7pO4cPcsAG#WorldAthleticsAwards pic.twitter.com/NZYair8orf

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) December 5, 2020

Cheptegei and Warholm leave empty-handed 

Of the five finalists for Male Athlete of the Year, Cheptegei and Warholm were the only runners, and both men had historic seasons this year. Cheptegei set three world records in 2020, starting off with the 5K road world record of 12:51 in Monaco. Six months later, he ran another 5K in Monaco, this time on the track, and he set the 5,000m world record of 12:35.36. Finally, his third world record of the year came in Valencia, where he ran the 10,000m best of 26:11.00. His only loss of 2020 was in his debut half-marathon in Poland, where he finished in fourth. 

RELATED: What runners can learn from Joshua Cheptegei

Warholm also had an impressive season. He went undefeated in eight races all year, and he ran some of the fastest hurdles results in history. In June, he set the 300mH world record when he ran a 33.78 in Oslo. He dedicated the rest of his season to chasing the 400mH world record of 46.78, which American Kevin Young ran in 1992. He came so close, running 46.87 in one race, but he couldn’t match Young’s 28-year-old record. 

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If Cheptegei had managed to win the half-marathon world title, there’s a big chance that he would have been honoured as Male Athlete of the Year. With the year he had, it’s a surprise that he didn’t win the title anyway. The same goes for Warholm. He certainly deserved to be in the conversation for top athlete of 2020, and had he beaten the 400mH world record, it’s possible that he would have taken the win over Duplantis. 

RELATED: Letesenbet Gidey breaks 15K world record

High odds for female runners 

With Gidey, Sifan Hassan, Elaine Thompson-Herah and Peres Jepchirchir on the list of five finalists for Female Athlete of the Year, the odds that we would see a runner take the title looked very good. Gidey only raced twice this year, and she ended up beating the 5,000m world record in her final run of the season with a 14:06.62 showing in Valencia.

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Hassan had a great year, winning 5,000m, 10,000m and one-hour races. She set the one-hour world record of 18,930m in September, and a month later, she posted the European 10,000m record of 29:36.67. Thompson-Herah had a good year, too, taking wins at Diamond League races in Rome and Doha and closing 2020 with a perfect record in the 100m. 

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Jepchirchir was the main threat to steal the title of Female Athlete of the Year from Rojas. She raced four times in 2020, winning three of the events (one of which was the world half-marathon championship). She also broke the women-only half-marathon world record on two occasions, and her PB now sits at 1:05:16. If WA had waited one more week to pick the Athletes of the Year, Jepchirchir may have won the honour, because her fourth race of the season came on Sunday at the Valencia Marathon. This was her debut at the distance, but she won in 2:17:16, the fifth-fastest marathon in history.