Emmanuel Wanyonyi and Angelina Topic
As the countdown to the World Athletics Awards 2023 continues, we shine a spotlight on the three women and three men who have been nominated for this year’s Rising Star awards.
In the final of three features, we profile Serbia’s Angelina Topic and Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi.
The winners of the Rising Star awards will be selected by an international panel of experts and announced on World Athletics’ platforms on 11 December.
Angelina Topic
A year after claiming high jump bronze at the World U20 Championships in Cali, 18-year-old Angelina Topic made her global senior championships debut and did so in style, finishing seventh in the final in Budapest.
Throughout the year she improved her personal bests in the high jump and the long jump, both indoors and outdoors – her high jump marks being Serbian senior records.
Indoors, she soared 6.50m in the long jump and cleared 1.94m in the high jump twice – first in Belgrade, in her second high jump competition of the season, and then again at the European Indoor Championships in Istanbul. It was a performance that secured her a fourth-place finish.
Topic made her Wanda Diamond League debut in her fourth outdoor competition of the year, finishing third in Rabat. Less than two weeks later she was back in Diamond League action, this time in Paris, where – still aged 17 – she cleared an outright Serbian high jump record of 1.97m to again finish third.
It was a performance that moved her to sole ninth on the world U20 all-time list.
Angelina Topic competes in the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene (© Getty Images)
She would go on to compete at a further five Diamond League competitions, including in Brussels where she equalled her national record and at the final in Eugene where she finished third.
By that point she was competing as the European U20 champion and a World Championships finalist, having won the age-group competition in Jerusalem and then cleared 1.94m on her senior international debut to finish seventh in Budapest.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi
Kenya’s Emmanuel Wanyonyi was among the nominees for the men’s Rising Star honour in 2022 and his continued progression this year has gained him further recognition.
The 2021 world U20 800m champion, who finished fourth in the senior World Championships final in 2022, started 2023 on a high as he formed part of Kenya’s gold medal-winning mixed relay team at the World Cross Country Championships in Bathurst in February.
That set the tone for another successful year, one in which he secured top two finishes in all bar one of his 11 800m races, including heats and semifinals.
Emmanuel Wanyonyi wins the Diamond League title in Eugene (© Getty Images)
Four Wanda Diamond League wins were among those results, as he triumphed in Rabat, Paris, Xiamen and the final in Eugene. Wanyonyi improved his PB four times – from 1:43.76, set when winning his world U20 title in 2021, to 1:43.32 in Nairobi in May, 1:43.27 in Paris in June, 1:43.20 in Xiamen in September and then 1:42.80 in Eugene two weeks later – a performance that claimed him the overall Diamond League crown. It was also a world-leading mark and Wanyonyi ended the season with four of the top nine times to his name.
Wanyonyi – who turned 19 on 1 August – also now sits fifth on the world U20 all-time list.
As well as fast times, Wanyonyi further demonstrated his championship ability in Budapest. Having safely navigated through the rounds, with wins in his heat and semifinal, he lined up for his second World Athletics Championships final. After finishing fourth in Oregon one year prior, this time he stormed to silver, finishing just 0.29 behind the winner.
