Caterina Ibargüen is the athlete of the year

In my previous post I had written

Much as I would have liked to see Ibargüen crowned, I do not see how she can compete against Chepkoech and MIller-Uibo.

Well, I was wrong and I am glad about this. Ibargüen is among the few female athletes that I adore (together with the great M. Ottey, M. Ahouré, N. Thiam and I. Spanovic). I have been following her ascension since quite a few years, applauding her Olympic and World titles. After she lost the 2017 world title for a trifle I was afraid that she was going to call it quits. But I did not count with her extreme resilience and her combativeness. 

A radiant C. Ibargüen

At 34 she proved that she is the best horizontal jumper ever winning the Diamond League, Continental Cup and Central American and Caribbean Games titles in both jumps. She did not have an over-15 jump this year but on the other hand she did improve her personal best in long jump with 6.93 m. Had she decided to specialise in long jump, she would have been and 7+ jumper. Now I am crossing my fingers for 2019 and 2020, where Ibargüen will go for gold at the World's and the Olympics respectively. 

While Ibargüen's title came as a very pleasant surprise to me, that of Kipchoge was a no-brainer. He was my favourite from the outset and the fact that Mayer obtained the European title made Kipchoge's nomination inescapable. 

Ibargüen with Kipchoge

Looking at the photo, next to Ibargüen's 1.80 m, Kipchoge's 1.67 m looks really diminutive. But do not let his size fool you: he is really the best marathoner ever (and since he is as strong as ever, he may even equal the mythical Abebe Bikila with a victory in Tokyo).

Duplantis (left) with Karalis, the greek pole vaulter 

who held (briefly) the U20 wortld record this year

Concerning the rising star award, M. Duplantis obtained the well-deserved title. I did not consider him in my junior top list since I included him in the senior one. But still, if there were to be single rising star in athletics, that would be Mondo Duplantis.

S. McLaughlin, in last year's ceremony

My prediction was 100 % accurate concerning the female rising star. S. McLaughlin was, and by far, the best low-hurdler of the year, in both the U20 and the senior category. I expect her to be world record holder no later than 2020. On the other hand I did prefer her in the white dress of the 2017 ceremony. I found the black dress and eye-glasses she wore this year a tad too severe. 

E. Pesiridou after her fall in the 60 m hurdles in the World Indoors

And while we are at it. The ceremony was also the occasion to award the best athletics photo of the year. You can find about the photo that (quite deservedly) obtained the first prize by visiting the IAAF page. But I could not resist the temptation to include here a photo involving a greek athlete, which did make it to the short-list. It was a most unfortunate moment for the greek hurdler but the photo is great.