World record-holders Joshua Cheptegei, Mondo Duplantis and Brigid Kosgei are among the nominees for the Laureus World Sports Awards.

Due to the continuing global pandemic, this year the Laureus Awards will not be presented at an open ceremony. Instead, the winners will be announced in May as part of a virtual awards event.

Kenyan Béatrice Chepkoech broke the 5 world km record in Monaco on Sunday, February 14, 2021, in 14'43 ". She improved on the previous record in a mixed race of 14'48 '' set by Caroline Kipkirui in 2018, and is also a second faster than Sifan Hassan's record of 14''44 for a women-only race, since the 5 km was introduced as a world record in November 2017. Beatrice also holds the world record for the 3000 m steeplechase in 8'44''32 since 2018, also set in Monaco.

The young Ethiopian Gudaf Tsegay (24) captured the best mark of all time over 1500m (indoor) in 3'53''09, during the Liévin meeting held on February 9, 2021. She subtracted more than two seconds from the time set by his compatriot Genzebe Dibaba in February 2014 in Karlsruhe (3'55''17). Over the same distance, Tsegay notably won a bronze medal at the last World Championships in Doha.

Kevin Mayer and Evelis Aguilar capped their 2020 campaigns with victories at the Meeting de la Réunion, the opening competition of the 2021 World Athletics Challenge - Combined Events, on the Indian Ocean island of Réunion on Saturday (19 december).

Mayer, the world record-holder, tallied 8552 points to take a convincing victory, and more importantly, securing his qualifying mark for next summer's Olympic Games in Tokyo.

Aguilar, the South American record-holder, collected 6055 points to fend off Estonian Mari Klaup's late challenge by 41 points.

With just five days to go until the World Athletics Awards 2020, the attention of the athletics world now shifts to the annual celebration honouring the world's best athletes whose achievements helped contribute to another unforgettable year for the sport.

Godwin Adongo loves to run. At eight years old, she finds athletics shows more interesting than cartoons and watches the Diamond League for fun. On Saturdays and Sundays, she hits dirt tracks in the Ugandan city of Lira for one-hour drills, honing her skills as a runner.

“I started running when I was three year old,’ says Adongo. “That’s when I first went to school.”

In June, the Benin Athletics Federation was named thesecond bestsports organisation in the West African nation by the country’s Olympic and Sports Committee.

The distinction came along with a check for4.5 million West African francs (approximately US$8130), which was converted at the federation’s requestto badly-neededtrack and field equipment, and promptly handed over to local athletics leagues.

This year's finest athletics achievements will be celebrated at the World Athletics Awards 2020, to be staged as a virtual event on Saturday 5 December and streamed live on the World Athletics YouTube channel.                  

Eight awards, including those in three new categories, will be presented:          

Poland is ready to welcome about 250 runners from more than 50 teams to compete at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships Gdynia 2020 on Saturday 17 October.

The sole World Athletics Series event of 2020 will also be one of the most highly anticipated competitions of the year as several global champions and world record-holders feature among the entries. Africa, true to tradition, should unquestionably dominate the competition.

World 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei, fellow Ugandan star Jacob Kiplimo, and world record-holders Peres Jepchirchir and Ababel Yeshaneh will all compete for global honours in Gdynia this weekend.