Double Olympic champ Chebet in contention for 2024 Soya honours

Double Olympic champion Beatrice Chebet is among top top athletes who have been nominated for the 2024 Sports Personality of the Year Awards (Soya) set for Kenyatta International Convention Centre (KICC) on April 16.

The gala whose theme is ‘Celebrating women’s excellence in sports’ will see several sports personalities rewarded in 11 categories including Sports Woman of the Year, Sportsman of the Year, Sportswoman with a Disability, a Sportsman with Disability, Coach of the Year, Sports Team Women, Sports Team Men, Schools Girls Team, Schools Boys Team, Schools Coach of the Year and Hall of Fame.

Soya founder and five-times World Cross Country champion Paul Tergat said that as the awards gala celebrates its 21 years of existence and focus in the 2024 awards will be on celebrating women who performed exemplary well. He thanked the sponsors and partners for their continued support of the event over the years.

“Moving forward, we plan to make this more than just a gala award and introduce other activities that will be done to help sports personalities, plan for their short season in the sporting arena and their future,” Tergat said.

Chebet is battling for the top prize in Sports Woman of the Year category with another Olympics champion Faith Kipyegon, World women’s marathon record holder Ruth Chepngetich, Boston and New York Marathon winner Hellen Obiri, and steeplechaser Faith Cherotich.

Chebet 25, enjoyed a successful 2024 where despite winning two gold medals at the Paris Olympics (5000m and 10000m), she also successfully defended her World Cross Country Championships in Belgrade, Serbia, and broke the 10,000m world record during the Prefontaine Classic leg of the Diamond League where she clocked 28:54.14.

She would later break the 5km world record in December 2024 at the Cursa dels Nassos where she clocked 13:54, becoming the first woman to break the 14-minute barrier on any surface. The previous world record of 14:13 was held by Agnes Jebet.

Kipyegon, a perennial winner at Soya, broke her 1500m world record by seven-hundredths of a second, running 3:49.04. She also won the Olympic 1500m gold medal and 5000m silver medal at the Paris 2024 Games. 

In the Sportsman of the Year category, boxer Boniface Mugunde who earned Kenya its first African boxing title since Nick Okoth in 2017, is among the five finalists in the nominations list.

Mugunde who won the light middleweight title in Kinshasa, DRC during the Africa Boxing Confederation Championships will be facing off against Nairobi Thunders' Albert Odero and athletes Emmanuel Wanyonyi, Ronald Kwemoi, and Benson Kipruto.

Odero was voted the Kenya Basketball Federation (KBF) league's Most Valuable Player. Wanyonyi broke the world road mile record in a time of 3:54.56 at the Adizero Road to Records event in Herzogenaurach, Germany, and also won the 800m Olympic Gold medal in Paris.

Japan-based Ronald Kwemoi became the first Kenyan to win a medal in the men's 5000m at the Olympics since Eliud Kipchoge in the Beijing 2008 Summer Games and Benson Kipruto 34, recorded the second fastest time in a men's marathon when he clocked 2:02:16 as he won the Tokyo Marathon. He also won the marathon bronze medal at the Paris Olympics.