With less than three weeks to go until the World Athletics Awards 2019, the IAAF is delighted to announce the five finalists for the 2019 Female and Male Rising Star Award to recognize this year’s best U20 athletes. The winner will be announced live on stage at the World Athletics Awards 2019 in Monaco on Saturday 23 November.
The nominees are: – World U20 lead at 1500m with 4:02.97, 1500m bronze medalist at African Games and semi-finalist at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019 Lemlem Hailu is the only representative from continent Africa. Britany Anderson from Jamaica, Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh, Glenda Rogers from Ecuador and Sha’Carri Richardson from USA are the other contenders for the coveted award. The American sprinter who set two new records: World U20 100m and World U20 200m record Richardson is the hottest favorite to take home the award.
Silver medalist in the 5000m at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019, World U20 lead at 5000m, World U20 lead at 10,000m and fifth in the senior race at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships Ethiopian Selemon Barega is the hottest favorite to win the accolade while his compatriot Lamecha Girma, Alison Dos Santo from Brazil, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and Mykhaylo Kokhan from Ukraine are the five athletes in the final short list.
The 19 year old Norwegian that set three records: world U20 lead and European U20 at 1500m with 3:30.16, world U20 lead and European U20 at the mile with 3:51.30 and European U20 at 5000m with 13:02.03 is the strong contender of Selemon Barega.