Alfred makes Athlete of the Year final

MONACO (CMC):

ST LUCIA’S sprint queen Julien Alfred will go head-to-head with American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone for the prestigious Women’s Track Athlete of the Year award.

The 23-year-old Alfred created history earlier this year when she won gold in the women’s 100 metres and silver in the 200 metres at the Paris Olympics, becoming the first athlete from St Lucia to medal at the prestigious Games.

She will come up against a formidable opponent in McLaughlin-Levrone, the United States’ Olympic 400-metre hurdles champion.

Among the men, Jakob Ingebrigtsen of Norway and Botswana’s Letsile Tebogo are the two finalists for the Men’s Track Athlete of the Year.Ingebrigtsen won gold in the 5000 metres at the Paris Olympics while Tebogo upset a stacked 200-metre field to capture gold in Paris.

Ukraine’s Yaroslava Mahuchikh, the Olympic high jump champion, and Nafissatou Thiam, Belgium’s Olympic heptathlon champion, have been nominated for Women’s Field Athlete of the Year.

Meanwhile, Olympic pole vault champion Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou, who copped gold in the long jump at the Olympics, will vie for the men’s equivalent.

Brian Pintado of Ecuador, the Olympic 20km race walk champion, and Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola, the Olympic marathon champion, have been nominated for the Men’s Out-of-Stadium Athlete of the Year, while Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya and the Netherland’s Sifan Hassan will contest the women’s equivalent.

Voting closes on November 10 and the Athletes of the Year in each category, as well as the overall winner, will be revealed at a ceremony in Monaco on December 1 as part of the World Athletics Awards 2024.