AfricaPress-Kenya: London Marathon champion Kenyan Brigid Kosgei has been nominated for the 2021 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award.
Other nominees include Japan’s tennis star Naomi Osaka, cycler Anna van der Breggen from the Netherlands, US basketballer Breanna Stewart, Italian skier Federica Brignone and Wendie Renard, the French footballer.
Kosgei won the 2020 London Marathon race won in 2:18:58.
🤩 It's official. These are the Nominees for the 2021 Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award:
🚴♀️ @AnnavdBreggen
⛷ @FedeBrignone
🏃♀️ Brigid Kosgei
🎾 @naomiosaka
⚽️ @WRenard
🏀 @breannastewart🙌 Who would you pick as the winner? #Laureus21 pic.twitter.com/sf4eXCATaX
— Laureus (@LaureusSport) February 24, 2021
Kosgei, 26, collected a total of $30,000(approx Sh3.3 Million) for crossing the line first, ahead of second-place Sara Hall of the U.S and third-placed, Ruth Chepngetich of Kenya.
The Sh3.2 million pocketed by Kosgei was considerably less than the $55,000 (approx Sh5.5 Million) prize she took home last year after winning the London Marathon.
The rules for distributing the prize money also dictate that the same amount of cash be given to the winners of elite men’s races as well as the lower finishers.
Months before the race, the event organizers said that the reduction of its prize fund for the 2020 London Marathon by nearly half was due to the financial hit from the Covid-19 pandemic.
Concerns over the pandemic have caused disruption to the worldwide sporting calendar and also loss of sports revenues collected by event organisers.
The races, originally postponed from April because of the COVID-19 pandemic, were run over almost 20 laps of a fenced-off course in a “controlled secure biosphere” around St James’s Park.
