World champion American hurdler Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone and Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis, both 23, won the World Athlete of the year awards on Monday.
McLaughlin-Levrone broke the world womenโs 400m hurdles record twice while Duplantis set three new world highs in 2022.
US-born Swede Duplantis claimed the award for the second time in three years with his three world records plus the menโs world indoor title in March and the world outdoor gold in July.
โGoing into the year, I had really high expectations of myself and I had some really big goals,โ he said.
โI wanted to win the world indoors, the world outdoors, the Europeans, the Diamond League final, and I wanted to break the world record a few times.โ
โI try not to put limits on myself. I can definitely jump higher than Iโve jumped right now. So I guess weโll see how high, but I want to push it higher than people think is even possible, thatโs for sure.โ
Both titles were claimed in world record heights of 6.20 and 6.21 metres respectively and he also sealed European gold in Munich. He won 18 of his 19 competitions, and vaulted six metres or higher 23 times.
Duplantis is the first pole vaulter to collect gold at the Olympics, World Championships, World Indoor Championships, World Junior Championships, World Youth Championships and European Championships.
The other menโs finalists were Moroccan steeplechaser Soufiance El Bakkali, Norwegian runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen, Kenyan marathoner Eliud Kipchoge, and American sprinter Noah Lyles.
It was the first World Athlete of the year award for McLaughlin who clocked an astonishing 50.68 seconds in July obliterating her own world record by more than half a second.
โโI would describe 2022 for myself by just saying incredible, all of my goals were accomplished this year,โ she said. โWe were able to accomplish everything we set out to do. It couldnโt have been any better.
โThereโs more possible, and I think as a whole this generation of athletes is figuring out thereโs a lot more we can do.โ
She is billed as a once-in-a-lifetime talent and has hinted she could change discipline to the 400m flat. She will be one of the most closely watched performers at the world athletics championships in Budapest in August.
โMy coach thinks thereโs a lot more to be done,โ she said. โThe skyโs the limit for sure,โ she said in July.
McLaughlin also won Olympic gold in 2021 in Tokyo in a then-world record time.
The other womenโs finalists were Nigeriaโs Tobi Amusan, Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Kimberly Garcia of Peru, and Venezuelaโs Yulimar Rojas.
Earlier on Monday, Erriyon Knighton, 18, became the first athlete to win the Rising Star Award twice as his performance in winning world 200 metres bronze at the World Championships in Eugene was honoured.
โWinning this award back-to-back means my talent is getting recognised on a bigger stage,โ Knighton said.
The womenโs Rising Star award went to 18-year-old Adriana Vilagos of Serbia, who successfully retained her world under-20 javelin title with a championship record. (StraitsTimes)