Women’s Indoor Athlete Of The Year — Yulimar Rojas
March 18, 2020by T&FN
The only women’s World Record of the indoor season went to triple jumper Yulimar Rojas. (VICTOR SAILER/PHOTO RUN)
JUMPERS DOMINATED when it came time to choose the Indoor Women’s Athlete Of The Year for the 2020 season. The best of them all, in our eyes, was World Record setter Yulimar Rojas, who upped the undercover triple jump best to 50-7½ (15.43). The 24-year-old Venezuelan had earlier moved to No. 2 ever with her 49-3¾ (15.03) meet and in her WR competition also jumped 50-2 (15.29) to end up with all-time performances 1, 3 & 10.
Honorable mentions to high jumper Mariya Lasitskene, vaulter Anzhelika Sidorova and long jumper Malaika Mihambo. Lasitskene came close to making it three indoor AOYs in a row, winning all 3 of her meets, clearing 6-8¼ (2.04) to move to =No. 8 ever, then improving to 6-8¾ (2.05) for a share of No. 6 all-time.
Fellow Russian Anzhelika Sidorova went 4-for-4 on the season, first moving to No. 4 ever with her 16-1¾ (4.92) vault, then climbing to =No. 3 by scaling 16-2¾ (4.95). Finally, German’s Malaika Mihambo moved to No. 10 ever in the long jump with her 23-2½ (7.07) bound.
Previous Indoor Women’s Athletes Of The Year
Yulimar Rojas made some history by becoming the first to win our Women’s Indoor AOY crown based solely on triple jump credentials (’04 winner Tatyana Lebedeva had great TJ bona fides, but also won the world LJ title that year). She’s also the first South American winner. Our 21 winners this century:
