Ashton Eaton and Yarisley Silva (© Getty Images)
USA’s world decathlon champion Ashton Eaton and Cuba’s world pole vault champion Yarisley Silva were named the 2015 NACAC Athletes of the Year, the North Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC) announced on Wednesday (16).
Eaton improved his own decathlon world record with 9045 at the IAAF World Championships Beijing 2015. The Olympic and world indoor champion was also named the 2015 IAAF Athlete of the Year in November.
Silva added her first world outdoor title to the indoor gold she won in 2014. She also topped the world lists with a Central America and Caribbean record of 4.91m and successfully defended her Pan American Games title in Toronto.
Other world champions were nominated for the men’s award: Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, US triple jumper Christian Taylor and US shot putter Joe Kovacs.
The other women’s nominees were Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Cuban discus thrower Denia Caballero and US long jumper Tianna Bartoletta, all of whom won gold in Beijing this year.
The top junior athlete honours went to Jamaica’s Christopher Taylor, who claimed the 400m gold at the IAAF World Youth Championships Cali 2015 and Cuba’s Yulenmis Aguilar, who set a world junior javelin record of 63.86m at the Pan American Junior Championships in Edmonton.
Other candidates for the junior men’s award were Cuba’s world youth long jump champion Maykel Masso, USA’s Pan American junior decathlon champion Harrison Williams and Jamaican 400m junior record-holder Akeem Bloomfield.
The other junior women’s candidates were USA’s 100m hurdles world junior record-holder Dior Hall, USA’s Vashti Cunnigham, who equalled the world youth high jump best, and Candace Hill, who won the sprint double at the IAAF World Youth Championships and set world youth bests in both events during the course of the year.
NACAC for the IAAF
