Wanjiru, Jelimo favourites for Friday’s Soya awards
Pamela Jelimo. Photo/FILE
Olympic gold medallists Nancy Jebet Lagat, Pamela Jelimo, Samuel Wanjiru and swimmer Jason Dunford are on the final shortlist for this year’s Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Award.
Samuel Wanjiru. Photo/FILE
The winner will be announced during special gala that will held on Friday at Kenyatta International Conference Centre (KICC) plenary hall.
Judges have trimmed down the finalists to just five per category just hours before the ceremony, which will be presided over by Ethiopian marathon icon Berhane Adere, a double winner of the Chicago Marathon and vice president Kalonzo Musyoka.
Former world 800m champion Maria Mutola of Mozambique, will however miss the gala. Soya founder member and former world marathon record holder Paul Tergat confirmed Mutola’s unavailability saying it was abrupt.
“The former world and Olympic two lap race champion, who was expected to arrive in the country on Thursday, called to apologise for the last minute pullout. She cited personal commitments as the reason for her withdrawal.
“Mutola told me that she cannot make it for the function due to unavoidable circumstances. I believe she has good reasons for that and we respect it. Otherwise everything else is up and running and we are looking forward to the function,” said Tergat.
Ethiopian Berhane Adere will be the chief guest instead. She joins a list of star guests who have graced this premier sports event. They are Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), Henrik Ramaala (South Africa) and Nigeria’s Daniel Amokachi. Adere won the Chicago Marathon twice and set in 2006 a personal best time of 2:20:42.
