Awards season continues. World Athletics announces its annual awards, leaving December and the latter part of November out of the ‘year’ presumably in pursuit of getting in first. Track & Field News releases its annual rankings, holy writ from The Bible of the Sport. Now – finally, comes the Athletics Australia awards.
The world leads, Australia follows. Chronologically, anyway.
World Athletics, with its combination of expert nominations and popular vote, is an outlier here. Indeed, its male athlete of the year went to Letsile Tebogo. He had an excellent year it must be said. But it must equally be acknowledged Mondo Duplantis had an even better one, a superlative 2024 capped by three world records along with championships indoors and out, European championships and Diamond League final.
Indeed, such was Duplantis’ level of excellence that he was chosen no.1 by no fewer than 32 of the 33 panellists. Of a possible 330 points on the 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 scale, Duplantis amassed 329. Not so in the female AOY voting, which was topped by Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone. Peerless in her flagship 400 metres hurdles she may be, but McLaughlin-Levrone was nominate no.1 by just 10 of the 33.
And that was not even the highest number among the four women who received a no.1 vote. Kenya’s Beatrice Chebet, Olympic 5000 and 10,000 gold medallist was the choice of 15 voters. Chebet was still edged out for second spot, however, by compatriot Faith Kipyegon, ranked no.1 by just three voters but second by 11 and third by ten more. At no.4, high jumper Yaroslava Mahuchikh also garnered more no.1 votes (five) than Kipyegon.
Before we look at the Athletics Australia awards in detail (and ignore Tebogo v Duplantis) let me just say that this pattern of obvious choices on the male side versus any number of possibles on the female was borne out. Australia had eight athletes ranked top-10 in their event by Track&Field News – two men and six women – and the choice of female Australian no.1 was just as tight.
Too close to call, in fact. For the first time Athletics Australia allowed joint awards, and a grateful voting panel immediately invoked the privilege, Olympic pole vault champion Nina Kennedy and Olympic 1500 metres silver medallist Jessica Hull sharing the honours as female athlete of the year.
No such luxury for Bruce McAvaney, however. In deciding the award (named after him) for Performance of the Year McAvaney had to choose one or the other. First, he had to decide which single performance he would consider for the pair. Kennedy had her Olympic gold medal victory. But she also had five Diamond League wins including in Monaco, Rome, Zurich and the final in Brussels. And which one for Jess Hull: her Olympic silver medal, her national record behind Faith Kipyegon’s world record in the earlier Paris Diamond League, her 2000 metres world record in Monaco?
McAvaney opted for Hull over Kennedy and for Hull’s performance chasing Kipyegon’s world mark. “It was the way she ran, the courage she showed. To break an Australian record by more than five seconds, running 3:50.83 — that’s a result that, for most of us, was almost unthinkable. Jess’s (first) Paris performance elevated her to greatness and left an indelible mark on what was already one of the most extraordinary years in Australian athletics history.”
No argument from me.
You can find the full details of the Athletics Australia awards on the AA website (athletics.com.au). But to complete the individual athlete awards James Turner and Vanessa Low took out the male and female Para Athlete of the Year categories while Torrie Lewis and Gout Gout were the winners in the junior athlete of the year category.
The junior awards opened up some interesting conundrums of their own, what with there being both an Olympic Games and a world U20 championships in 2024. Lewis and Claudia Hollingsworth both made the Paris Olympic team and both took silver medals in the world U20s. Peyton Craig made the Olympic team, went close to the national record and won a silver medal at the world U20s. Gout and Cam Myers also won silver medals at the U20s. Neither made the team for Paris, though Myers went mighty close.
How to line all that up? The awards went to Lewis and Gout. Lewis also had to her name an early-season Diamond League 200 victory over Sha’Carri Richardson. Gout, in terms of impact at least, had a strong case for Performance of the Year when he broke Peter Norman’s long-standing 200 national record at the Australian All Schools last December.
Finally, a disclaimer: I have been a member of the AA awards panel for a number of years. Not saying how I voted this year, but I will say the individual athletes represent an excellent set of awardees.
Given the scarcity of Australian Olympic and world championships medallists, voting for the awards is usually a tick-and-flick exercise. It is a lot harder – and a lot more enjoyable – when there is plenty to discuss!
