Obiri, Kipruto named Kenya’s best

NAIROBI: Helen Obiri and Conseslus Kipruto were on Wednesday named Kenya’s 2017 Athletes of the Year after their gold medal-winning performances at the World Championships in London.

Middle distance runner Obiri, 28, won the women’s 5,000m outsprinting Ethiopia’s Olympic 10,000m champion Almaz Ayana to take her first world outdoor title.“I am very proud to be named Kenyan Female Athlete of the Year,” said Obiri, who beat the Olympic and world 1,500m champion Faith Chepngetich for the award.

“2017 has been great and I am looking for more success in 2018,” she said.Kipruto, who is the reigning Olympic and world 3,000m steeplechase champion, was named the winner of the men’s award ahead of world 1,500m champion Elijah Manangoi and marathon gold medallist Geoffrey Kirui.

The winners, voted for by Kenyan sports journalists, were named at a ceremony in Nairobi on Wednesday night with paralympic athlete Samuel Muchai, who won two of Kenya’s three gold medials in the Rio 2016 Paralympics, named overall Sports Personality of the Year.