This year World Athletics will not forget the younger athletes (as they did last year) and made clear that the Rising Stars of the year will be announced at the World Athletics Awards 2021 on December 1st.
A list of five plus five nominees was published and I must say that I am perplexed. But let us start with the lists.
The men nominees are
Sean Burrell
Erriyon Knighton
Emmanuel Wanyonyi
Tadese Worku
Sasha Zhoya
Knighton and Zhoya are part of my list (and I will risk a prediction, claiming that I expect Knighton to clinch the title). Among the remaining three only Burrell improved a world record. I still remember his fall in the US Trials where by doing a somersault he tried to get back into the race. (I should have included him in my rising star list).
The women's list is the one that is problematic:
Keely Hodgkinson
Silja Kosonen
Christine Mboma
Athing Mu
Zerfe Wondemagegn
First I do not understand why Mu is present in Athlete of the Year and Rising Star lists. This is probably the first time an athlete appears in both lists. But at least her presence in the "grown-ups" list doesn't jeopardise her nomination as rising star.
Now, why on earth does Ch. Mboma appear in the list? I understand that WA is pretending to play fair as far as DSD athletes are concerned. After all C. Semenya did appear in an Athlete of the Year nominee list. But in the long run hyperandrogenic athletes are going to wreak havoc upon women's athletics and so encouraging them by a selection in the year's best list is uncalled for. (And just in case you wonder, I would have included Brianna Williams instead of Mboma in my top five list, and I would have also included Kosonen).
And I will never understand why Wondemagegn was selected pushing out F. Bol. The former was a simple olympic finalist while Bol won bronze, and her continental record was better than the world record at the beginning of the season. Was it just a memory lapse or a bout of stupidity of World Athletics? I don't know whichever is worse.
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