Kenyan marathon legend, Eliud Kipchoge, on Thursday, May 18, won the Princess of Asturias Award for sports for 2023, awarded by the Spanish foundation.
According to the foundation, Kipchoge, among the winners, walked home with Ksh7.4 million (fifty thousand euros).
Apart from the cash prize, Kipchoge also received a Joan Miró sculpture representing and symbolising the Award, a diploma, and an insignia conferred by Princess Leonor of Asturias, born in October 2005.
” In keeping with these principles, the Princess of Asturias Award for Sports is to be granted to careers which have become an example of the benefits that practising sports can bring to people, via their promotion, fostering and advancement of sport and sense of solidarity and commitment,” the foundation stated.
“Each Princess of Asturias Award comprises a Joan Miró sculpture representing and symbolising the Award, a diploma, an insignia and a cash prize of fifty thousand euros,” it added.
Kipchoge was picked as the winner following a decision arrived at by a 16-member jury in Spain.
Accepting the award, Kipchoge indicated that it motivated him to leave a binding legacy in athletics. He further thanked the 18-year-old princess for honouring him with the Princess of Asturias Award.
“It is an absolute honour to receive the Princess of Asturias Award. To be amongst a list of extraordinary laureates, all people in different walks of life. It motivates me in my goal to leave a legacy in this world through running since a running world is a more peaceful world, a happier world and a more healthy world,” Kipchoge wrote.
“I would like to thank Her Royal Highness The Princess of Asturias, and her parents, Their Majesties The King and Queen of Spain, to grant me this honour,” the marathon legend added.
Kipchoge won 10 of the world’s major marathons, including Berlin and London, four times each.
Currently, he holds the record of running a marathon race in less than two hours during the Ineos race in Vienna, Austria.
Kipchoge is looking to break his record of the timing of 1:59:40 set in Vienna in 2019 before hanging his running shoes.
