- Emmanuel Wanyonyi crowned Track Athlete of the Year 2025 after a stellar season.
- He won World and Diamond League titles in the 800m and achieved four of the top six performances of the year, including a world lead of 1:41.44 in Monaco.
- He beat four other competitors for the award including Noah Lyles.
Kenya’s two-lap specialist Emmanuel Wanyonyi has ended his 2025 season on a high after being crowned the male Track Athlete of the Year in the World Athletic Awards 2025.
The 21-year-old, claimed the prestigious crown after winning World and Diamond League titles in the 800m and achieving four of the top six performances of the year, including a world lead of 1:41.44 in Monaco.
Nominated along a star-studded list that included American trio Noah Lyles, Cordell Tinch, Rai Benjamin and Jimmy Gressier from France, Wanyonyi bagged top honours in the ceremony held in Monaco.
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Mens track athlete of the year award to Kenya’s world 800m champion Emmanuel Wanyonyi (R) on stage during the World Athletics Awards 2025 in Monaco, on November 30, 2025. (Photo by Valery HACHE / AFP)
Emmanuel Wanyonyi crowned Track Athlete of the Year 2025
“The World Athletics Awards is a celebration of the very best of our sport. Tonight, we honour our greatest men’s and women’s athletes and rising stars across track, field and out of stadium,” said World Athletics President Sebastian Coe during the awards ceremony.
“If there’s a motto for this year’s Awards, it is ‘for the athletes, by the athletes’ and the recipients tonight will aptly receive their prizes from some of our most storied Awards winners down the years.
“I want to thank all the athletes present for their inseparable contribution to a memorable 2025, with its crescendo World Athletics Championships in Tokyo – the most widely covered and commercially impactful edition of our sport’s flagship event in its history.”
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Wanyonyi was one of three Kenyan athletes who received awards on the night.
Sabastian Sawe was confirmed as the out of stadium athlete of the year after winning the London Marathon and the Berlin Marathon, the latter in a world lead of 2:02:16.
17-year-old Edmund Serem was named the Rising Star of 2025. He became a world bronze medalist as he finished third in the 3000m steeplechase behind New Zealand’s Geordie Beamish and Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali in Tokyo.
He was runner-up in the Diamond League final and achieved top four finishes in four other Diamond League meetings during the season.
The biggest awards of the night went to World champions Mondo Duplantis and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone who were announced as the World Athletes of the Year in recognition of their standout achievements in 2025.
ALSO READ: Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe wins Out of Stadium Athlete of the Year 2025
World Athletes of the Year for 2025
Women’s World Athlete of the Year: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA)
Men’s World Athlete of the Year: Mondo Duplantis (SWE)
Women’s track: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA)
Women’s field: Nicola Olyslagers (AUS)
Women’s out of stadium: Maria Perez (ESP)
Men’s track: Emmanuel Wanyonyi (KEN)
Men’s field: Mondo Duplantis (SWE)
Men’s out of stadium: Sabastian Sawe (KEN)
Women’s Rising Star: Zhang Jiale (CHN)
Men’s Rising Star: Edmund Serem (KEN)