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Why Kenyans want Kipchoge’s photo on Laureus Sports Award poster changed


Kenyans have come out to congratulate marathon world record holder and Kenyan Sports Personality of the year Eliud Kipchoge for being nominated for this year’s Laureus World Sports Awards Sportsman of the Year award.

Most Kenyans on social media are however disgusted by the event organizers’ choice of Kipchoge’s photo for the poster, which they now want changed.

Many of them are of the view that the organizers should have selected a better photo given that Kipchoge has thousands of photos.

Kipchoge is the only African nominated in the category and he will battle it out with a stellar cast which includes French wonder kid and World Cup winner Kylian Mbappe, American basketball player LeBron James and Fifa World Player of the Year and Balon d’Or winner Luka Modric of Croatia.

IN BAD TASTE

Interestingly, all the other candidates, apart from Kipchoge, have quality photos in the poster.

Kenyans have called out the organizers for using the photo, which is clearly in bad taste.

The 34-year-old won the nomination for the award after a brilliant 2018 season that saw him smash the marathon world record in Berlin, clocking 2:01:39, to lower the world mark over the distance by the biggest margin in close to five decades.

Kipchoge, who also won his third London Marathon crown earlier in April, was also named the 2018 IAAF Athlete of the Year, just days after being named the United Nations (Kenya) Person of the Year.

Here are some of the reactions of Kenyans on Twitter: