The tension between Kenya and Tanzania is set to go a notch higher after representatives of the two nations are set to battle it out for the World Athletics ‘Out of Stadium’ Male Athlete of the Year award.
Through a statement released on Tuesday, November 18, World Athletics revealed that Kenya’s Sabastian Sawe and Tanzania’s Alphonce Simbu were shortlisted for the award set for Sunday, November 30, in Monaco.
Relations between the two nations' citizens and governments are poor, marked by underlying tension beneath their ostensibly lighthearted interactions.
The ‘Out of Stadium’ award is a recognition of top athletes in events that traditionally take place outside of the main stadium, with the two recording stellar performances over the 42-kilometre race discipline.
This category was introduced in 2023 when World Athletics restructured its main ‘Athlete of the Year’ award into three distinct event categories for both men and women: Track, Field, and Out of Stadium.
The winners of the 'Out of Stadium', 'Track', and 'Field' awards become the finalists for the overall Men's World Athlete of the Year and Women's World Athlete of the Year titles.
Sawe will be aiming for his first-ever award, and his remarkable performances will surely make him the favourite for the award. Sawe’s year was marked by victories in two of the Abbott World Marathon Majors races, with one victory seeing him record the world-leading time.
On April 27, Sawe won the London Marathon in a stunning time of 2:02:27. Notably, this was the second-fastest time ever recorded at the London course, making the win more remarkable as it was his first time competing in London.
On September 21, Sawe stormed to victory at the Boston Marathon, recording a world-leading time of 2:02:16. He went out at a blistering pace, passing the halfway mark in 1:00:16, a split faster than the start of the previous world record run. Although he slowed slightly due to warm conditions, his dominant solo effort in the second half was lauded by pundits.
Simbu, on the other hand, won the Men's Marathon gold medal at the World Athletics Championships Tokyo 25 on September 15, 2025, with a time of 2:09:48.
The victory made him the first Tanzanian in history to win a gold medal at the World Athletics Championships or the Olympic Games.
The race was filled with drama, recording the smallest margin of victory in World Championships marathon history, with Simbu just 0.03 seconds ahead of Germany's Amanal Petros in a dramatic sprint finish inside the stadium.
He also secured a strong second-place finish at the Boston Marathon earlier in the year, clocking 2:05:04.
In terms of voting, the two finalists will face a weighted voting process. In the three tiers of voting, the World Athletics Council accounts for 50 per cent of the vote. The World Athletics family (Member Federations, technical officials, and athletes' commissions) accounts for 25 per cent. The public vote, done via social media channels like Facebook, Instagram, and X, represents 25 per cent of the vote.
The athlete with the highest combined percentage in the weighted voting will then be crowned the Male ‘Out of Stadium’ Athlete of the Year.
