Cheptegei up against Lebron, Hamilton for Laureus World Sportsman of the year award

Record breaking Ugandan long-distance runner Joshua Cheptegei has been nominated for the Laureus World Sportsman of the year award.

Cheptegei is up against NBA Superstar LeBron James, Formula One champion, Lewis Hamilton, Bayern Munich forward Robert Lewandowski, Tennis Superstar Rafael Nadal and Pole-Vaulter Mondo Duplantis for the coveted award.

The revelation was confirmed on Wednesday afternoon via the Laureus social media platforms.

They tweeted “here are the nominees for the 2021 Laureus World Sportsman of the year.”

Cheptegei has earned the nomination among the Sports greats after a successful year on both road and track events, breaking three world records in the process. Notably, he broke Kenenisa Bekele’s 5,000m world record at the Monaco Diamond League meeting before another Bekele record, taking 6.53 seconds off his 10,000m in Valencia

In Monaco, Cheptegei set a new world road 5 km record of 12:51, breaking through the event’s 13-minute barrier, taking 9 seconds from the previous best time of 13:00, set by Kenya’s Sammy Kipketer in 2000.

The Laureus World Sports Awards is an annual award ceremony honouring individuals and teams from the world of sports along with sporting achievements throughout the year.

This year’s award ceremony in May will be a ‘virtual’ event due to the Coronavirus pandemic

Rise to fame

Cheptegei’s rise started way back in 2014 when he won the World Junior Championships in Eugene United States. He became the African Junior Champion the following year, in Ethiopia. He thereafter had some quiet years before bursting onto the international stage in a powerful way, when he won in the 5000m and 10000m races at the 2018 Commonwealth Games in Australia. Joshua’s star continued to rise in 2019 when he clinched gold at the World Cross Country Championships and World Championships in Aarhus, Denmark and Doha, Qatar respectively. 

In sport, 2020 will be remembered among other things as the year, Cheptegei went on to break records starting with his exploits at the Monaco Diamond League meet, where he set a new 5000 metres world record of 12:35.36, breaking Kenenisa Bekele’s 16 year-old world record of 12:37.35. Later the same year, he also set a new 10000 meters world record time 26:11.00 at the NN Valencia World Record Day in Valencia, Spain breaking the previous world record of 26:17.53 that had been set by Kenenisa Bekele in 2005. On the 14th Feb 2021, Joshua retained his Monaco Run title to mark a perfect start to his 2021.