Spotlight on Kenyan youngster Jackline Chepkoech nominated for 2022 Rising Star Award

As the countdown to the World Athletics Awards 2022 continues, the governing body shines a spotlight on the five women and five men who have been nominated for this year’s Rising Star awards.

Among the first to be featured on the list is Commonwealth 3000m steeplechase champion Jackline Chepkoech who was nominated in the list alongside compatriot Faith Cherotich. Here is why the youngster is on the forefront to win the Rising Star Award.

Jackline Chepkoech and Faith Cherotich shortlisted for Rising Star award

Jackline Chepkoech

Following on from her world U20 title in 2021, Chepkoech picked up in 2022 where she left off the previous year.

The Kenyan steeplechaser opened her season with victory at the senior Kenyan Championships, beating many of her more experienced compatriots and setting a PB of 9:26.12 in the process.

That PB lasted exactly one month because she went on to chop 10 seconds off it with a 9:15.97 run at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Eugene.

A few weeks later, she backed up her national championships win with a victory at Kenya’s trial event for the World Championships, running 9:21.84 at the altitude of Nairobi.

At the World Athletics Championships Oregon22, her first senior international championships, she acquitted herself well but missed out on a spot in the final by two places. From then on, though, she didn’t put a foot wrong and enjoyed a strong finish to her season.

Her next stop was the Commonwealth Games, where she won gold in a PB of 9:15.68, beating Olympic champion Peruth Chemutai in the process. Just five days later, Chepkoech reduced her PB to 9:09.72 at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Monaco.

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She still wasn’t finished, though. After a three-week break from racing, she returned to action at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Brussels and beat a high-quality field to win in 9:02.43, elevating to second on the world U20 all-time list and 13th on the senior all-time list.

She wrapped up her season with a fifth-place finish at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Zurich in 9:11.06, the third-fastest time of her blossoming career.

The winner of the Rising Star Awards will be selected by an international panel of experts and be announced on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December.

Reporting by World Athletics.