Nairobi News

Sports

Eliud Kipchoge nominated for BBC Sports Personality of the Year award

By Hilary Kimuyu November 29th, 2019 2 min read

Olympic marathon champion and world marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge is among this year’s nominees for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

Every December, the great and the good of British sporting talent are announced to celebrate the standout performers from the past 12 months.

The six nominees for this year’s event were revealed on Monday 25 November and they included Eliud Kipchoge, Simone Biles, Siya Kolisi, Megan Rapinoe, Steve Smith and Tiger Woods.

Kipchoge in October broke one of sport’s great barrier when he became the first man to run a marathon in under two hours during the INEOS challenge.

He completed the 42km in one hour 59 minutes and 40 seconds, six months after the Kenyan won the London Marathon for a fourth time. He was overjoyed with the news and took to social media to thank everyone for the nomination.

Simone Biles is an American who has won five world championship gold medals raised her record-breaking medal tally to a total of 25.

South African Rugby player Siya Kolisi made history in stunning style as the Springboks’ first black captain and led South Africa to a 32-12 victory over England in the Rugby World Cup final.

Another American, Megan Rapinoe scored six goals and helped the USA win the Women’s World Cup in France as she claimed the Golden Boot for top scorer and Golden Ball for best player in the tournament.

Steve Smith enjoyed a prolific series to help Australia retain the Ashes despite being ruled out of the third Test after suffering a concussion.

Eleven years after his last major, injury-plagued Tiger Woods produced one of sport’s great comeback stories to win the Masters at Augusta. The 43-year-old, written off by many golf fans and pundits as he battled serious injury problems, also equalled the PGA Tour record of 82 tournament wins with victory at the Zozo Championship in Japan.

It is now down to the public to crown a winner in just a couple of weeks’ time as the six sportsmen and women will compete for the public vote on the night of the live show.

Votes can be cast by phone or online on the evening of Sunday, December 15, and the number to call for each contender will be revealed during the programme.