Tebogo, Mahuchikh favourites to win inaugural Jesse Owens award at Diamond League final
Sprinter Letsile Tebogo and high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh are the favourites to win the inaugural Jesse Owens award instituted for the two best performing athletes aged 23 and under at the Wanda Diamond League Final this weekend in Brussels, Belgium.
The two best athletes will receive the Jesse Owens Rising Star Award, presented by the Owens family, the Jesse Owens Foundation and the Wanda Diamond League.
This new award in honour of legendary US sprinter Jesse Owens will be presented to two outstanding young athletes at the Wanda Diamond League Final from 2024 onwards.
Jesse Owens was 23 years old when he won four gold medals at the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, writing himself indelibly into the sporting history books.
Each winner will receive a bronze statuette of Owens designed by Belgian sculptor Jan Desmarets.
Among the young performers this year who are eligible are Tebogo (21), Emmanuel Wanyonyi (20), Samukonga Mazala (22), Mahuchikh (22), Julien Alfred (23), and Ackera Nugent (22).
According to Diamond League organizers, winning performances will be decided to pick the winners using a points system which compares performances across disciplines.
This means the duo of Tebogo, in particular, and Mahuchikh only need to repeat their individual best time or mark set this year when they compete in Brussels this weekend to be the first winners of the award.
If Tebogo runs at least 19.46, the time he ran to win his historic 200m Olympic gold, he can only lose if Samukonga and Wanyonyi run headline grabbing times.
Samukonga will have to win the 400m by setting a 43.23 lifetime best that will catapult him to third on the event’s all-time list behind Wayde van Nierkerk (43.03) and Michael Johnson (43.18).
Wanyonyi, on his part, must race over the two full laps race in a time only one man, his countryman David Rudisha, has ever run, a sub 1:41.
The 20-year will have to run 1:40.97 to equal the 19.46 Tebogo can repeat in Brussels to stand a chance of winning.
For the women, Mahuchikh does not need to repeat her world record setting height of 2.10m to win. The Ukrainian only needs to clear from 2.05m to take the award out of the reach of Nugent who will need to break Tobi Amusan’s record and become the new high hurdler in history to break 12 seconds in the event.
The Jamaican has been electrifying this season, running inside 12.30 three times, capping it with a 12.24 world lead.
Reigning Olympic 100m champion, Julian Alfred must also run faster than her 10.71 lifetime best and become the first sprinter in St Julia to break 10.6 in the event to be sure of probably beating Mahuchikh to the award.
