Wanyonyi's smooth transition puts him in contention for Rising Star award

World Athletics 2021 800m Under-20 champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi is hoping to beat a strong field for this year's Rising Star award. 

Wanyonyi is nominated alongside four other high-achieving young men who had spectacular performances in the 2022 season. 

Winners will be selected by an international panel of experts and will be announced on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December.

Wanyonyi started the year as the reigning world U-20 800m champion but he decided against defending his title and instead opted to compete against senior opposition.

It proved to be the smoothest of transitions as the Kenyan middle-distance runner won his first four races, including the Continental Tour Gold meetings in Nairobi and Ostrava and then at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Rabat, beating some of the world’s best 800m runners in the process.

At Kenya’s hotly contested trials, Wanyonyi clocked a season’s best of 1:44.01 to secure his place on the team for the World Athletics Championships in Oregon.

He went on to finish fourth at the World Championships, clocking 1:44.54 and missing out on a medal by just a quarter of a second - despite still being aged just 17 at the time.

He ended his season in fifth place on the world rankings. Of all U-20 athletes, only Erriyon Knighton ranks higher in the overall rankings.

Wanyonyi still has another year left as an U20 athlete, but given he has already made an impact as a senior, expect to see him featuring prominently on the international circuit again in 2023.

@World Athletics