The Winner of the 2019 IAU Athlete of the Year

Camille received over 37% and Aleskandr over 31% of all votes. Both were winning convincingly. Camille was already the winner in 2015 and 2018, second in 2017. For Aleksandr this is the first award but he was nominated for the award in 2018. The runners up in both categories are listed below.

Percentages of votes were as follows:

Camille Herron (USA)

Camille is one of the greatest ultra-distance runners. There is no surprise she was nominated and been on podium of IAU Athlete of the Year Award in the last 3 years, winning in 2015, 2018, 2019 and second in 2017). She manage to improve World Best Performances on 3 main distances/time events including 12 hours within 149.130 km (92.665 miles), 100 miles with 12:42:40 and in 2019 during IAU 24 World Championship she set new World Best Performance for 24 hours within 270.116 km (167.842 miles), still under ratification process. List of her winning event since 2015 is outstanding. This includes IAU 50 km World Championship, IAU 100 km World Championship (both in 2015), 2019 IAU 24H World championship, Comrades Marathon in 2016 and many other races. More about her you can find at http://www.camilleherron.com/

Aleksandr Sorokin (LTH)

Aleksandr in present at international level since 2014 when for the first time he participate in the IAU 100 km World Championship in Qatar. Year by year he improved his performance with main focus on 24H. He won Spartathlon in 2017, followed by bronze medal at 2018 IAU 24H European Championship in Romania and finally gold at 2019 IAU 24H World championship in France. Year by year he improved his personal best for 24H being 260, 491 km (2016), 260,991 km (2018), twice in 2019 from 272,708 km and finally 278,972 km at IAU World Championship. All of the above results are Lithuanian Best Performances at 24H. He holds top 7 best results for 24H in Lithuania.

We would like to congratulate all nominees and winners of the 2019 award.

Jacek Bedkowski

IAU Director of Communication