Record-breaking Beatrice Chebet has been named the LG\/SJAK Sports Personality of the Month (SPOM) for May 2024 following her brilliant display at the Prefontaine Classic, a popular track and field event held every year in Oregon, USA.<\/p>\n
This was the 49th edition of the meet and the fifth leg of the 2024 Diamond League \u2013 the highest-level international track and field circuit.<\/p>\n
With an insatiable appetite for success, the Iten-based Chebet made history as the first ever woman to run the 10,000-meter distance in under 29 minutes as she clocked 28:54.14.<\/p>\n
Her nomination as the May SPOM also entered her name in the annals of the award\u2019s history as one of the few athletes to win the title three times.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis award allows us as LG Electronics to strengthen sports cohesion among our sports champions and communities across diverse disciplines. Our commitment is to ensure that the desire, dream and vision of our sports personalities do not wither. For us, it is very important to recognize exceptional talent, and Chebet is certainly deserving of the May award,\u201d LG\u2019s Managing Director for East Africa, Dongwon Lee, said.<\/p>\n
Chebet beat 12 other strong candidates for the award, including reigning FIA African Rally Champion and current series leader Karan Patel; Gor Mahia striker Benson Omalla; Harambee Starlets player Rebecca Okwaro and E-Sports star Bilal Mohamed, amongst others.<\/p>\n
Bilal became the first Esports player to be nominated for the monthly award, after winning the African Championship by defeating Nigeria\u2019s Chukwudi Okoli 3-2 in the Street Fighter 6 final held in Lagos, Nigeria.<\/p>\n
Also competing with Chebet were runners Daniel Mateiko and Brian Komen; footballers John Mark Makwata and Austin Odhiambo; amateur golfer Michael Karanga; esport Antony Nyamanya; Taekwondo master Patrick Thimangu; and Amos Obae, who was recently named the Rugby Super Series player of the tournament.<\/p>\n
Others were Triza Atuka and Deborah Jesang, who were recognized as the best blocker and outside hitter, respectively, and later drafted into the African Dream Team during the 2024 Confederation of African Women\u2019s Volleyball Clubs Championship in Egypt.<\/p>\n
SJAK President James Waindi congratulated all the nominees, while urging Chebet to lead Kenya\u2019s medal hunt at the upcoming Paris Olympic Games.<\/p>\n
For Chebet, it was an impressive feat at Oregon as she smashed the existing world record of 29:01.03 set by Ethiopia\u2019s Letesenbet Gidey in 2021. She also shattered Kenya\u2019s national record of 29:32.53, established by Vivian Cheruiyot during the 2016 Rio Olympics.
\nDespite her historic achievement, Chebet revealed that setting a world record was not her initial intent. \u201cI did not plan for it,\u201d she explained, crediting her rival, Ethiopia\u2019s Gudaf Tsegay, for setting the pace for her.<\/p>\n
\u201cGudaf wanted a world record, so I thought I\u2019d go along and see how my body felt. It responded well, so I pushed ahead.\u201d
\nAfter the race, Chebet and Tsegay, who are friendly competitors, shared a warm embrace. \u201cShe congratulated me, telling me, \u2018You are the best, you are strong,’\u201d she recounted.<\/p>\n
The Oregon event also served as the Athletics Kenya qualifiers for the upcoming Paris Summer Games, and with her victory, Chebet not only secured her spot on the Kenyan team, but also demonstrated her formidable talent in her first 10,000-meter race since 2020.<\/p>\n
The post Beatrice Chebet Wins Third LG\/SJAK Award<\/a> first appeared on KBC<\/a>.<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Record-breaking Beatrice Chebet has been named the LG\/SJAK Sports Personality of the Month (SPOM) for May 2024 following her brilliant display at the Prefontaine Classic, a popular track and field event held every year in Oregon, USA. This was the 49th edition of the meet and the fifth leg of the 2024 Diamond League \u2013 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-52803","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","entry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52803","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52803"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52803\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52803"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52803"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/chezaspin.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52803"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}