FRONT RUNNER!
Coaches favour Thompson Herah for Female Athlete of the Year award
Published:Sunday | October 24, 2021 | 12:06 AMDaniel Wheeler - Staff Reporter
WHILE IT may not be a foregone conclusion, Swept Track Club’s head coach Okeile Stewart and Legacy Athletics’ Omar Hawes say reigning sprint double repeat Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson Herah, is in a better position to finally claim World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year award.
The 29-year-old was among the 10 nominees announced yesterday by World Athletics. The list also includes Olympic 400-metre hurdles champion Sydney McLaughlin of the United States and Olympic triple jump champion Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela.
Thompson Herah’s nomination caps a 2021 season that saw her not only successfully defend her Olympic 100m and 200m titles in Tokyo this year, but break American’s Florence Griffth-Joyner’s 33-year-old 100-metre Olympic record(10.62 seconds) by clockingh 10.61 seconds. Thompson Herah would go even faster in August, in her first race post the Tokyo Olympics, clocking 10.54 seconds, the second-fastest time in history.
McLaughlin and Rojas managed to win gold and set world records in the 400m hurdles and the triple jump, respectively.
Hawes says despite the pedigree of the nominees, Thompson Herah’s achievements this year separated her from the pack, making her a clear favourite to take the top prize in December.
“They all did well this season but I think Elaine was a little bit special in that she ran an Olympic record in the 100m. If we are going to compare to Sydney McLaughlin, she would have done way better than Sydney in winning and also getting the double. She is the first woman to have gone 10.5 seconds in 30-odd years. So that makes her a bit more special and again because she has come from so much,” Hawes told the Sunday Gleaner.
“It’s not easy to come back from (Achilles injury), manage your time well, getting back with rehab and then come pull out times like those in a convincing fashion. She had a few other runs afterwards that basically showed that she was on top of her game this year. So for me, it’s a no-brainer,” added Hawes.
THREE FINALISTS
The 10-woman field will be withered down to three finalists after preliminary voting concludes on November 6.
The World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year honour has eluded Thompson Herah twice in her career. She was a finalist in 2016 and 2020.
Stewart says that the magnitude of her performances, which includes becoming the first woman to complete the Olympic 100m and 200m double at back-to-back Games, puts her in a better place to win this year compared to previous occasions when she was nominated with athletes with World record performances, despite putting up very fast times.
“The event is one that would catch the eye and I would think the method in terms of how they would go about selecting the winner may also play a role in that. There are different avenues which you can fall into. But I think what she has done this year in terms of raising the bar as it relates to the individual events, the 100m and 200m, those are (premium) events and it speaks volumes in terms of her achievement and the field in which she would have been competing against,” Stewart said.
If successful, Thompson Herah would join Merlene Ottey (1990) and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (2013) as the only Jamaican women to have won the award.
Both Stewart and Hawes say that finally capturing the individual prize would be the crowning glory for Thompson Herah, to mark a historic 2021, with hopes of more success.
World Athletics Female World Athlete of the Year Nominees
Valarie Allman
Jasmine Camacho-Quinn
Sifan Hassan
Faith Kipyegon
Mariya Lasitkene
Sydney McLaughlin
Shaunae Miller-Uibo
Athing Mu
Yulimar Rojas
Elaine Thompson Herah