Sabastian Sawe, Tigst Assefa and Agnes Ngetich Nominated for World Athlete of the Year

Sabastian Sawe, whose run at the London Marathon in April was the first sub-two-hour marathon to count as a world record, made the 10-man shortlist for World Athlete of the Year, and Tigst Assefa and Agnes Ngetich are two of the 10 women nominated. World Athletics announced the 20 nominees on Tuesday, nearly eight weeks before its awards night in Monaco on Nov. 29.

In May, World Athletics announced it was folding the track, field, and out-of-stadium categories it had honored since 2023 into a single award for each gender. Out-of-stadium was where the road runners and race walkers were honored, so this year the distance runners are up for the main prize or nothing at all. Sawe won the men’s out-of-stadium prize last year after taking London and Berlin, and Spain’s María Pérez, nominated again this year, won the women’s. The names beside Sawe on the men’s ballot now include Mondo Duplantis, who pushed the pole vault world record up to 6.31m this season and has won the overall award three times.

Eliud Kipchoge, in 2018 and 2019, is the only man to have won it outright as a road runner, according to World Athletics’ list of past winners. Among the women, Paula Radcliffe won in 2002, and Sifan Hassan was named in 2024 after a Paris Olympics in which she won the marathon and added bronze medals in the 5,000m and 10,000m.

The London Marathon on April 26 has been Sawe’s only race of 2026, and World Athletics has since ratified his 1:59:30 as the world record, 65 seconds under the 2:00:35 Kelvin Kiptum ran in Chicago in 2023. He was due to defend his Berlin title in September but withdrew on Aug. 27, and the next day his agent, Eric Lilot, told LetsRun.com that an MRI had found a slight stress fracture in his right tibia and that the aim is a marathon in spring 2027. One notable name missing from the list is Yomif Kejelcha, who finished just 11 seconds behind Sawe in London on his marathon debut and then ran 56:51 for the half-marathon in Buenos Aires in August, a time still awaiting ratification as the world record.

Assefa, nominated while she recovers from Achilles surgery, ran 2:15:41 in that same London race to lower her own women-only world record, and on Sept. 27 she won Berlin for the third time in 2:11:04, the third-fastest women’s marathon ever, despite her right Achilles tendon giving way in the last two kilometers while she was still on world record pace. The tendon was repaired the next day at a trauma hospital in Murnau, south of Munich, and her manager, Gianni Demadonna, told Marathon Handbook the plan is “two months without walking, then one month of walking and cycling, and after that she will start running slowly.”

Ngetich won both of her world titles by wide margins: cross-country in Tallahassee in January by 42 seconds, and the half-marathon at the World Road Running Championships in Copenhagen in September in 1:05:15, a women-only world record, with Veronica Loleo 50 seconds back in second. Her 28:58 for 10K and 8:08.95 for 3,000m are also the fastest marks in the world this year. Pérez makes it four nominees from outside the stadium, having won the European half-marathon race walk title by 58 seconds in 1:30:06, which now stands as the event’s first world record.

Voting stays open until midnight Central European Summer Time on Oct. 17, and it will set the order of all 10 names on each list. Fans fill in an online survey, and their say carries the same weight as three other blocs: athletes who raced at World Athletics Series events this year, journalists and commentators accredited to those events, and an in-house group that takes in council and commission members, meeting directors, federation presidents, sponsors and staff. Each bloc is worth a quarter of the result. The shortlists were drawn up by eight statisticians, six nominated by the continental area associations and two by World Athletics itself. The top three on each list will be revealed on Nov. 10 and 11 and invited to Monaco, where the ceremony will also hand out a new Moment of the Year award.

The 20 Nominees

Women

• Tigst Assefa (Ethiopia): 2:11:04 Berlin win, 2:15:41 women-only world record in London
• Chase Jackson (United States): shot put, North American record of 21.14m and the world indoor title
• Melissa Jefferson-Wooden (United States): 100m and 200m double at the Ultimate Championship, 21.47 in the 200m
• Agnes Ngetich (Kenya): world half-marathon and cross-country champion, 1:05:15 women-only world record
• Marileidy Paulino (Dominican Republic): 400m, Ultimate and Diamond League titles, unbeaten, 48.48
• María Pérez (Spain): 1:30:06 half-marathon race walk world record, European champion
• Camryn Rogers (Canada): hammer, North American record of 81.13m, Commonwealth champion
• Masai Russell (United States): 100m hurdles world record of 12.09, unbeaten
• Audrey Werro (Switzerland): 800m, Ultimate, Diamond League and European titles, 1:53.70
• Yan Ziyi (China): javelin, 71.74m Asian and world U20 record

Men

• Kenneth Bednarek (United States): 100m and 200m double at the Ultimate Championship, 19.52 in the 200m
• Kristjan Čeh (Slovenia): discus, European champion with 72.51m
• Andy Díaz Hernández (Italy): triple jump, world indoor, Diamond League and European titles, 18.15m
• Alison dos Santos (Brazil): 400m hurdles world record of 45.80, unbeaten in 11 races
• Mondo Duplantis (Sweden): pole vault world record of 6.31m
• Collen Kebinatshipi (Botswana): 400m, Ultimate champion in 43.39
• Josh Kerr (Great Britain): mile world record of 3:42.66, Ultimate 1,500m champion
• Rumesh Tharanga Pathirage (Sri Lanka): javelin, 92.62m, 13 wins from 14 competitions
• Sabastian Sawe (Kenya): 1:59:30 marathon world record in London
• Ja’Kobe Tharp (United States): 110m hurdles world record of 12.75