Everybody knows Novak Djokovic, the hard-working No 1 tennis player in the world. So there was no surprise there when he was named the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year winner on Monday.
The female equivalent award went to Kenyan middle distance runner, Vivian Cheruiyot. “Chariot who,” many gasped in surprise and total ignorance of an excellent sportswoman of our times. The ignorance is annoying but can be understood in the positioning of sportswomen as sex symbols.
At 28 Vivian is clearly not an upstart and surely not a late achiever as far as winning titles is concerned; she’s been at it since she was 15 when she took silver in the IAAF world cross country championships in 1999. A year later she won the gold in the same event in Vilamoura, Portugal.
Cheruiyot has been the winner ever since and the past two years she just swept the boards, with 2011 being her crowning glory. That year she took the unique 5000m and 10000m double at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu, Korea, and the senior title at the IAAF World Cross Country Championships in Punta Umbria, Spain.
It is a mystery, therefore, why the IAAF conferred their female athelete of the year title for 2011 on Australian one-hit wonder, Sally Pearson. Compared to Vivian, Sally only won the 100m hurdles title in Daegu last year. Only the powers that be know how an athlete who won three IAAF could play second fiddle to one-title winner.
Anyway, it appears the Laureus have managed to correct IAAF’s howler and restored sanity by picking a deserving winner, who did not only compete with fellow track and field competitors but with the best of the best in all sports for the title.
Not the one for cameras at glamorous events, Vivian, clad in a silver evening dress, was as modest as ever when she recieved her trophy in the televised event. "Last year was a big year for me," she just managed to state the obvious, with her voice shaking.
She may not be a focus of flesh-seeking cameras and sex-symbol starved public, but the young lady from Keiyo district in the Rift Valley province of Kenya looks every part the champion. And that's the beauty of her contribution to human development and quest for excellence. It is also significant to note that she is the first woman from Africa to win the Laureus sportswoman of the year award since these awards were founded 12 years ago.
Vivian is only happy for the attention of her husband Moses Kiplagat Kirui, who also took over her training last year. After completing her double at Daegu last year, she famously remarked: "Since I got married to him in 2007, my athletics career has been successful. He's a loving and caring husband.”
How sweet. . .
Bra Tumo, if she was 15 in 2009, then she should be 18 this year.
ReplyDeleteit was a mistype. . . should have been 1999. Tnx
ReplyDelete