Uproar as Beatrice Chebet, Faith Kipyegon miss out on World Athletics award
Reading Time: 3min | Wed. 05.11.25. | 12:19
This is the second consecutive year that Chebet has been snubbed, a decision that has not sat well with many Kenyan fans
A storm has erupted online after double world champion Beatrice Chebet and triple Olympic gold medalist Faith Kipyegon were overlooked in the final shortlist for the World Athletics Female Track Athlete of the Year award, despite imperious seasons.
Follow our WhatsApp channel for more news
Chebet broke the 5000m world record at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene before pulling off an extraordinary 5,000m–10,000m double at the World Championships in Tokyo. She was widely tipped to make the cut alongside compatriot Faith Kipyegon.
However, both missed out as the final list featured Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone of the United States and Femke Bol of the Netherlands.
This is the second consecutive year that Chebet has been snubbed. This decision has not sat well with many Kenyan fans who flooded social media platform X (formerly Twitter) to express their frustration.
One user, Mwacha, hailed Chebet as a model of humility and consistency
“She is the silent queen of Kenyan athletics. No excessive PR, just racing.”
Walusuna Walusugah accused the global body of trying to undermine Kenya’s dominance on the track.
“They are trying hard to break the Kenyan marathon spirit, but you, they, and we know who rules the tracks. They can choose even their grandmothers, but in the end, it’s the clock that determines the true champion.”
Some, like David Ndayar, called for Kenyan athletes to boycott such awards altogether, branding them as biased.
“We should simply never shortlist our athletes in this colonial ideology. Let them select their own and award them for participating in races we come and win. We can no longer be the underdogs even in victory,” he said.
Dommie echoed similar sentiments, describing the awards as popularity contests.
“These awards, just like the Ballon d’Or, are popularity contests with lots of PR.”
Others drew historical and humorous parallels. Imara Kinyanjui compared the snub to the treatment of American sprint legend Jesse Owens in 1936.
“This selfish act is reminiscent of the snub 1936 Olympic 4-gold-medal winner Jesse Owens received from President Franklin Roosevelt.”
At the Prefontaine Classic, Chebet clocked 13:58.06 to set a new 5000m world record, while Kipyegon broke her own 1500m world record with a stunning 3:48.68, improving on the 3:49.04 she set in Paris the previous year.
Their dominance continued in Tokyo, where Chebet became the first Kenyan woman to win the 10,000m since Vivian Cheruiyot, and added another 5,000m title to her name.
Kipyegon, on the other hand, defended her 1500m world title for the fourth time and added a silver medal in the 5000m, finishing behind Chebet.
Despite the uproar, Kenya remains represented in other award categories.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Sebastian Sawe, and Peres Jepchirchir all made the final lists in their respective categories.
For Wanyonyi, this year presents a chance to win his second World Athletics award after being crowned the Male Rising Star in 2023.
The 20-year-old clinched his first world title in Tokyo in the men’s 800m, upgrading from silver in Budapest last year. He also dominated the Diamond League, winning in Oslo, Stockholm, Monaco, and Zurich.
Wanyonyi will battle Noah Lyles, the American 200m world champion, for the Male Track Athlete of the Year crown.
In the Male Athlete Out of Stadium category, world half-marathon champion Sebastian Sawe faces off against Alphonse Simbu of Tanzania after his performance in Berlin, where he clocked 2:02:16.
For the Female Out of Stadium Athlete of the Year, Tokyo marathon champion Peres Jepchirchir will go head-to-head with Spain’s Maria Perez, the double racewalk world champion.
World Athletics clarified that fans’ votes, tallied from likes and reposts on Facebook, Instagram, and X, accounted for 25% of the total. The World Athletics Council held 50%, and the World Athletics Family held 25% of the remaining vote.
However, fans pointed out that Kipyegon and Chebet dominated online engagement, with Kipyegon amassing over 48,000 votes and Chebet gathering 31,000, suggesting the fan vote was not reflective of the outcome.
