Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas bag ‘World Athlete of the Year’ awards

Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas bag ‘World Athlete of the Year’ awards

At the World Athletics Awards ceremony held virtually today Mondo Duplantis and Yulimar Rojas were announced as the ‘World Athlete of the Year’ for men and women respectively. The World Athlete of the Year award is a prize that is awarded every year and the winner is chosen among athletes participating in events organized by World Athletics which includes sports like cross country running, road running and racewalking apart from each and every track and field event.

This year’s awards ceremony was held on Saturday virtually and was streamed live on the YouTube channel of World Athletics and also their Facebook and Twitter handles. According to World Athletics, the ceremony’s aim was to not only celebrate its finest athletes but also athletics itself.

A statement from World Athletics referred to the ceremony as follows: “It will be a celebration of the sport itself, to also honour and recognise organisations and individuals from around the world who met and overcame the unprecedented challenges, roadblocks and disruptions brought on by the global Covid-19 pandemic to ensure competitive opportunities for athletes and entertaining events for our fans across the globe.”

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Duplantis and Rojas bag awards

Yulimar Rojas

The Male Athlete of the Year award went to Armand ‘Mondo’ Duplantis, the 21-year-old Swedish pole vault champion. The youngster is the current holder of the world record (6.18 meters). Duplantis has been going from strength to strength right from the time he took up the sports as he has won medals in the 2015 World Youth Championships, the 2018 European Championships and the 2019 World Championships.

The Female Athlete of the Year was Venezuela’s Yulimar Rojas, a triple jumper. Starting out as a high jumper, the 25-year-old took up triple jumping before winning medals at the Rio Olympics 2016 before winning two consecutive world championships. Her personal best of 15.43 meters in Triple Jump is the world record for indoor triple jumping events.

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