Modern Athlete Magazine Issue 165 February 2024 | Page 39

Awards

MODERN ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

And the

Awards
MODERN ATHLETE OF THE YEAR

Nominees Are …

For the first time since it was launched in 2009 , Modern Athlete magazine is presenting a comprehensive annual Modern Athlete of the Year Awards , with the intent of recognising as many deserving South African athletes as we can , for their performances in 2023 , across all the disciplines of athletics and running that we cover in this mag . To do that , we ’ ve put our heads together to come up with lists of nominees in various categories , and in next month ’ s edition we will announce all the winners . – BY MANFRED SEIDLER , STEPHEN GRANGER & SEAN FALCONER
Images : Barco Greeff , Tobias Ginsberg , Zac Zinn

If you ’ ve ever watched an awards show on television , like the Oscars from the USA , you ’ ll know how it works : The nominees are introduced , and then the envelope is opened and the winner is announced . Besides the excitement , tension and entertainment of the show , another great aspect of these awards shows is the diversity of categories . For example , the Oscars recognise all aspects of the film industry , including acting , directing , producing , editing , special effects , animation , stunt work , soundtracks , and more , and films are also divided into categories , such as drama , action and comedy . The point is , apples are not compared to oranges in these awards .

We believe that the same should apply to annual awards for the sport of athletics .
Firstly , there are various disciplines within the sport – road running , trail running , track and field , cross country , as well as several smaller ones . There are also distinct divisions within those disciplines . For example , in road and trail , some athletes specialise in shorter distances , while others are focused on ultra distances , and in track and field , you have sprinters , middledistance athletes and field athletes .
It ’ s extremely hard to compare them all to each other , because their events have different requirements when it comes to speed , endurance , technique and more . That would definitely not be comparing apples and apples … more like apples , oranges , bananas , pineapples , pomegranates , watermelons , lemons , plums , peaches , prunes , and more !
And the Categories Are …
This why we have broken the road running , trail running and track and field disciplines into three sub-categories each , based on the traditional racing distances or disciplines that athletes participate in :
ROAD RUNNING 1 Shorter Distances – 5km to 21.1km 2 Up to Marathon Distances – 25km to 42.2km 3 Ultra-marathon Distances – Beyond 42.2km
TRAIL RUNNING 1 Short Distances & Mountain Running – up to 32km 2 Marathon Distances – 33km to 49km 3 Ultra-trail Distances – Beyond 50km
TRACK AND FIELD 1 Sprints & Hurdles 2 Middle Distances 3 Field Events
Counting the Nominees
We have not been prescriptive in the number of nominees per category . Sometimes there are three , sometimes there are more , and we think that ’ s great , because it means we have more athletes doing great things and deserving of recognition . We also have not limited athletes to being nominated in just one category , because this country has some superversatile athletes that do well at various distances .
Note : The lists of nominees for road and trail are published in this edition , but at the time of publishing we were still researching and compiling the track and field nominees , and we ’ ll be looking to include cross country as well when we bring you the second part of this Athlete of the Year special , to announce the winners , in our next edition
Of course , we know that nominating people for awards is subjective – one person ’ s opinion may be very different to the next person ’ s – so we fully expect that athletes and readers may disagree with some of our choices . We also acknowledge that athletes and readers may even disagree with our categories . Nevertheless , we believe that this is a solid starting point for these first awards , and something we can build on for the next year ’ s awards .
We are proud to say that we are recognising a more diverse number of disciplines and athletes , because we ’ ve seen other organisations , platforms or publications try this before , and sometimes their awards have been oversimplified or too broad ( comparing apples with oranges ), or too focused on just one of the sub-disciplines of athletics ( only looking at the apples , while ignoring the oranges ).
Therefore , we welcome feedback and input from both athletes and readers alike , and you are invited to send your comments or suggestions to letters @ modernathlete . co . za . We ’ d love to hear what you think , be it for or against what we ’ ve laid out here . And we look forward to announcing the winners in the next mag ! Now , turn to the next pages and 39 check out the nominees for road and trail !