KINGSTON, Jamaica – Jamaica’s Britany Anderson is the only Caribbean athlete that has been named among the five finalists for the 2019 Female Rising Star Award to recognise this year’s best Under 20 athlete.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced the finalists on Monday with less than three weeks to go until the World Athletics Awards 2019.
The 18-year-old made the list as a result of her performance in the women’s 100m hurdles at the Motonet Grand Prix meeting in Joensuu, Finland on July 24 where she twice broke the world Under 20 record.
First, the 18-year-old clocked 12.79 in the heats to best the 12.84 mark set by Cuban Aliuska Lopez in 1987. Then, Anderson went considerably faster in the final, winning the race in 12.71 (+1.3m/s), 0.01 ahead of Annimari Korte whose 12.72 was a new Finnish record.
Anderson’s time is also a new national junior record, surpassing the effort of Rushelle Burton, who ran 12.87 back in July of 2016.
Anderson, the 2017 world U18 champion and silver medallist at the World U20 championships last summer, arrived in the eastern Finnish city with a 13.01 best set at last year’s championships in Tampere.
The winner will be announced live on stage at the World Athletics Awards 2019 in Monaco on Saturday, November 23.
The nominees are:
Britany Anderson (JAM)
– broke the world U20 record in the 100m hurdles, clocking 12.71
Lemlem Hailu (ETH)
– world U20 lead at 1500m with 4:02.97
– 1500m bronze medallist at African Games
– semi-finalist at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019
Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR)
– broke world U20 record in the high jump with 2.04m
– silver medallist at the IAAF World Athletics Championships Doha 2019
– European U20 champion
Glenda Morejon (ECU)
– world U20 best in the 20km race walk, clocking 1:25:29
– world U20 lead and South American U20 record in the 10km race walk with 43:04
Sha’Carri Richardson (USA)
– world U20 100m record with 10.75
– world U20 200m record with 22.17
– NCAA 100m champion
