Faith Cherotich and Roshawn Clarke
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 first of three features, we profile Kenya’s Faith Cherotich and Jamaica’s Roshawn Clarke.
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.
Faith Cherotich
After two world U20 medals – gold in 2022 and bronze in 2021 – Faith Cherotich made it on to a senior global podium in 2023.
The Kenyan 19-year-old opened her competition calendar at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, where she finished fourth in the U20 race. That would end up being her lowest place finish of the whole year.
Her track season began at the Wanda Diamond League meeting in Doha where she finished third in the 3000m steeplechase in 9:06.43, just 0.29 off the PB she set in Zurich eight months prior.
She then finished second at the Kip Keino Classic, a World Athletics Continental Tour Gold meeting, on home soil in Nairobi, before securing her spot for the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 by finishing third at the Kenyan trials, also held in Nairobi.
In Budapest, making her senior international debut, Cherotich won her heat and then finished third in the 3000m steeplechase final four days later, improving her PB to 9:00.69 when claiming bronze behind Bahrain’s Winfred Yavi and her Kenyan compatriot Beatrice Chepkoech, the world record-holder.
Faith Cherotich at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© Getty Images)
Despite having improved her lifetime best by more than five seconds and won her first senior major medal, Cherotich wasn’t done there. She returned to the Weltklasse meeting in Zurich and again finished third, clocking 9:07.59 for the fourth-fastest time of her career.
She had one race left. Lining up at the Wanda Diamond League Final in Eugene, she finished third in a repeat of the World Championships podium but this time with her first ever sub-nine-minute performance. Behind Yavi and Chepkoech, who pushed each other to the second and third-fastest times in history, Cherotich clocked 8:59.65 – the No.2 performance on the world U20 all-time list.
Roshawn Clarke
Such was Roshawn Clarke’s fantastic form in 2023, the Jamaican 19-year-old improved the world U20 400m hurdles record not once, but twice.
He opened his season with a couple of 400m races on home soil in Kingston, running a PB of 46.42 in the second of those. He then began his 400m hurdles campaign at the Jamaican trials for the CARIFTA Games, which he won, before recording another 400m PB of 45.85 two weeks later.
Once at the CARIFTA Games in The Bahamas, Clarke first retained his U20 400m hurdles title before he helped Jamaica to retain the 4x400m crown.
A third and final 400m PB of the year followed at the start of June – this time 45.24 at the Racers Grand Prix.
Roshawn Clarke at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23 (© Getty Images)
With his focus back on the 400m hurdles, Clarke made a statement at the Jamaican Championships, first clocking a PB of 48.91 to win his heat, improving on his previous best of 49.35 that he set in the semifinals of the 2022 World U20 Championships in Cali, where he went on to claim bronze.
Just one day later he improved again, and this time it wasn’t only his own fastest ever performance, but the joint fastest result ever recorded by an U20 athlete. In clocking 47.85 to win the Jamaican title, Clarke equalled the world U20 record set by USA's Sean Burrell in 2021.
His progress continued at the World Athletics Championships Budapest 23. After finishing third in his heat to secure a semifinal spot, he went on to finish second in that race and become the sole world U20 record-holder with his time of 47.34.
The next day – and despite it being his first ever senior global championships – Clarke finished fourth in the final in 48.07.
