Caterine Ibarguen (Image by Seleccionantioquia [CC BY-SA 3.0], from Wikimedia Commons)
Sports

Colombia’s Caterine Ibarguen named world’s best female athlete

by Adriaan Alsema

The International Association of Athletics Federation on Tuesday named Colombia’s Caterina Ibarguen as World Athlete of the Year.

The triple jump specialist from Apartado, Antioquia, was considered the best female athlete. Kenyan runner Eliud Kipchoge was named the best male athlete of the year.

Ibarguen is the current holder of the gold Olympic medal holder in the triple jump category after her victory in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

This year, Ibarguen won gold in the long jump and the triple jump categories at the Central American and Caribbean Games. Last year she ended second at the World Championships in London.

The IAAF called the athlete one Facebook “the Queen of jumps,” stressing she was unbeaten in triple jump over the past eight championships.

Ibarguen, 34, is by far Colombia’s most successful athlete who has gone from a childhood in the poverty-stricken and war-torn Uraba region to the very top of her favorite athletics category.