Modern Athlete announced its 2023 Track, Road, Trail and Cross-Country athletes of the year today (Thursday 7 March), the awards paying tribute to a number of high-quality performances by athletes who held their own at international level.
Nominees had previously been announced in a number of categories, which separated gender and distances, with winners including both relative newcomers to the sport as well as seasoned campaigners, who continue to excel at the highest levels.
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Rulers of the Road
Thabang Mosiako was arguably the road find of the year, taking the honours in the short distance category, with another exciting relative newcomer, Cian Oldknow getting the nod in the women’s division. Both are athletes with a bright future in the sport, with Oldknow likely to represent South Africa at the Olympics later in the year.
Gerda Steyn enjoyed a stellar year, achieving a unique treble of Two Oceans and Comrades Marathon titles in addition to setting a national marathon record at the end of the year marathon fiesta in Valencia. Not surprisingly she was named as winner in both the marathon and ultra-marathon categories.
Like good wine, Stephen Mokoka appears to improve with age and his superb lifetime best of 2:06:42 in Japan early in the year clinched the award in the marathon sector, with the Runified 50km and Comrades winner, Tete Dijana a clear winner in the ultra-division.
Titans of Trail
Bianca Tarboton clinched the awards in both the Short and Marathon distance trail categories after her best-ever year as a professional athlete, excelling at home and abroad, while newcomer to the sport, top road athlete Sipho Mbanjwa’s strong showing at the World Mountain and Trail Running Championships tipped the scales in his favour in the short distance category.
Seasoned campaigner, Kane Reilly put together an exceptional race at the country’s premier trail marathon – the Otter African Trail Run – and his loss by less than two minutes to world-beater Robbie Simpson of Scotland, earned him top honours in the marathon category.
Daniel Claassen again demonstrated his ability over ultra-marathon distances to narrowly edge out ever-improving Matt Healy in a close contest in that sector, but there was never a doubt in the women’s division, where Toni McCann’s sensational victory at the UTMB OCC 55km in France in August was one of the highlights of South African trail history.
Track and Field heroes
Back from injury, Wayde van Niekerk, and young hurdler whizzkid ,Marione Fourie topped the tables in the sprint categories while multi-record-breaker, Adriaan Wildschutt was unchallenged in the middle-distance track races. The exciting Tshwane 800m athlete, Prudence Sekgodisio, gave notice the world will hear more of her in the years to come and clinched the award in the women’s category.
Cherwill Johnson, ranked an impressive 24th in the world in long jump, and Karmen Fouche won the ’Jumps’ category, while 20th-ranked discus thrower, Victor Hugo, and exciting javelin newcomer Jo-Ane van Dyk (10th at the World Championships in Budapest) were clear winners in the ‘Throws’ division.
Cross-country champions
Strong performances by Precious Mashele and Cian Oldknow at the World Cross-Country Championships in Australia (16th and 27th respectively) last February were enough to tie up the 2023 cross-country honours for the pair, giving Oldknow her second Modern Athlete of the Year win for the year.
