World Athlete of the Year: Four Africans in the running, voting closes October 17, 2026

Four African athletes are among the twenty nominees for the 2026 World Athlete of the Year title, announced by World Athletics on October 6, 2026: Kenyans Sabastian Sawe and Agnes Ngetich, Ethiopian Tigst Assefa, and Botswanan Collen Kebinatshipi. Voting, which remains open until midnight Central European Time on Saturday, October 17, 2026, involves fans, athletes, accredited media, and the World Athletics family, with each of these four groups accounting for 25% of the final result.

Sawe, the first man under two hours in a sanctioned marathon

Sabastian Sawe's season is the most spectacular of the group. The Kenyan won the London Marathon in 1:59:30, a world record, and became, according to the nomination published by World Athletics, the first man to break the two-hour barrier in a record-eligible marathon. The symbolic barrier that athletics had been chasing for years fell on a sanctioned course, without any exhibition setup.

Agnes Ngetich achieved one of the most complete doubles of the year: World Half Marathon Champion in 1:05:15, a world record in a women-only race, and World Cross Country Champion. She also recorded the world's best performances of the year in the 3,000m (8:08.95) and the 10km (28:58).

Assefa and Kebinatshipi complete the quartet

Tigst Assefa won in Berlin in 2:11:04, the third-best performance in history, and in London in 2:15:41, a world record in a women-only race. Collen Kebinatshipi has taken Botswanan 400m running to a rare level: winner of the World Athletics Ultimate Championships in 43.39, the fifth-fastest time ever, Diamond League champion, competition record improved three times, and six races under 44 seconds in a single season.

The Confederation of African Athletics (CAA) has shared the four nominations, reports the APA agency. The continent remains the global benchmark for road and long-distance track events and is now also establishing itself in the one-lap event, long considered a reserved domain.

See you on November 29 in Monaco

The three finalists in each category will be announced on November 10 and 11, 2026. The winners will be unveiled on November 29, 2026, in Monaco, during the World Athletics Awards ceremony. No African is guaranteed a spot: facing Sawe and Ngetich are, notably, Sweden's Mondo Duplantis, who set a world record of 6.31m in the pole vault, and American Masai Russell, who set a world record in the 100m hurdles at 12.09 seconds.