Kenya’s annual Sports Personality of the Year Awards (SOYA) theme ‘Celebrating women’s excellence in sports’ is a fitting theme for 2024 – a year marked with the extraordinary performance of Kenyan athletes.
2024 was the year in which three Olympic gold medals were won by two incredible athletes, Beatrice Chebet and Faith Kipyegon. A year of firsts and fasts: sub-14:00, sub-28:00, sub-2:10. A year that truly celebrated the excellence of Kenyan women in athletics.
It is not surprising, then, that the Female of the Year category is all Athletics, with the double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet leading the athletics nominations.
Chebet enjoyed her breakthrough year, winning an incredible double – 5000m and 10,000m – at the Paris Olympic Games on her debut and Kenya’s first-ever 10,000m gold medal.
The 24-year-old commenced the year by defending her World Cross Country title in Belgrade in March which was followed by a new 10,000m world record, with the first ever sub-29 minutes clocking 28:54.14 at the Prefontaine Classic.
She went on to break the sub 14-minute barrier in the 5km when she crossed the line in 13:54. The top-ranked athlete in the world at 5000m, 10,000m, and Cross Country – she has made a case for herself.
Chebet is in the esteemed company of her mentor and role model, Faith Kipyegon, who won her third Olympic title in the women’s 1500m – making her the first female athlete to win a hattrick of gold medals in a single-track discipline.
Kipyegon also won silver in the 5000m in her debut at the distance at the Olympic Games. She lowered her 1500m world record with a time of 3:49.04 at the Paris Diamond League, and rounded off with her fifth Diamond League Trophy. The 1500m queen won the Female of the Year award three times.
The other shortlisted athlete is the marathon world record holder Ruth Chepngetich, who in October achieved the first ever sub 2:10 when she tore apart the world record with 2:09:56 set at the 2024 Chicago Marathon.
Hellen Obiri, the 2024 Boston Marathon champion, Olympic bronze medallist in the marathon, and third place finisher in New York marathon, and youngster Faith Cherotich, the 3000m steeplechase Olympic bronze medallist and diamond league winner are also nominated.
“The line-up itself speaks volumes. Being with such big names for the 2024 soya award is something special to me and every girl-child. From Obiri, Ruth, Faith, myself and Cherotich, I see a bright future for ladies in sport. The lineup contains strong ladies with focus and determination,” Chebet told AthleticsAfrica
Olympic 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi has been nominated in the Sportsman of the Year category. Wanyonyi, with a PB of 1:14.11 missed the 800m World record by just 0.2. In April, he broke the mile world record clocking 3:54.56 at the Adizero Road to Records. He also won the Diamond Trophy.
Benson Kipruto, the Olympic bronze medallist in the marathon and Tokyo Marathon winner and Ronald Kwemoi, who became the first Kenyan male to win an Olympic medal in the 5000m with his silver in Paris, completed the athletics nomination in the men’s category.
The 21st edition of the Sports Personality of the Year Awards will be held on 16 April 2025 at the Kenyatta International Convention Centre. SOYA was founded by the five-time World Cross Country champion Paul Tergat.
