Noah Lyles congratulates Jaydon Hibbert on winning The Bowerman Award
Noah Lyles, Olympian and six-time World Athletics Championships gold-medalist, recently extended his congratulations to Jaydon Hibbert for winning the Bowerman Award.
Hibbert, a Jamaican triple-jumper, beat out one of America's top 10 decathletes Kyle Garland and Germany's Leo Neugebauer on Thursday night for the award.
The Bowerman Award is an award distributed annually by the U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. The trophy is named after coach Bill Bowerman, and is the highest honor a track and field student-athlete can receive at the collegiate level.
For 18-year old Jaydon Hibbert, this award is the cherry on top of an extraordinary season. The Jamaican, who is currently a part of the Arkansas Razorback team, kicked off 2023 with a literal record-breaking performance. In March 2023, Hibbert won the NCAA Division I Indoor Championships with a jump of 17.54, setting an outright world U-20 triple jump record.
Just two months later, he managed to improve his record with a distance of 17.87 at the SEC Championships in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. Jaydon's year also saw him qualify for the World Athletics Championships finals, where he had to withdraw due to issues with his hamstring.
Noah Lyles congratulated the 18-year-old for his award victory on X (formerly Twitter), writing:
Congratulations @_wunderkid__ on winning the Bowerman!
Noah Lyles speaks out on split Athlete of the Year awards
Meanwhile, Noah Lyles was in for a slightly unpleasant surprise on December 11, when he was crowned World Athlete of the Year, alongside two other people. Mondo Duplantis was awarded in the field events category, and Kelvin Kiptum won the out of stadia title.
Traditionally, the World Of the Year is bestowed upon only two people, one man and one woman, for outstanding sporting exploits in the year. This time around, World Athletics flipped the script, and awarded six people, three men and three women, leaving fans and athletes alike confused.
A few days after the ceremony in Monte Carlo, Monaco, Noah Lyles took to X to express his sentiments about the sudden change of plans. He stated that the World Athletics committee's decision to split the award without informing players beforehand left him feeling like no athlete was good enough to be named World Athlete of the Year.
"I believe I found the right words for what happened at the AOY awards. When they decided to split the award without telling any of us, including the fans that voted. It made me feel that none of our achievements were good enough to be AOY."
World Athletics is yet to respond to Lyles' statement.