The World Athletics Council has announced a list of ten nominees for Male World Athlete of the Year 2020 with Ugandan long distance runners Joshua Kiprui Cheptegei and Jacob Kiplimo making the cut.
The list of nominees was selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.
This year, Cheptegei broke world records at 5000m (12:35.36), 10,000m (26:11.00) and 5km on the roads (12:51) and came fourth at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships on his debut over the distance.
Meanwhile Jacob Kiplimo won the world half marathon title in a championship record of 58:49 and ran a world-leading 7:26.64 over 3000m, the fastest time in the world since 2007.
The nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, despite the challenges that the global Covid-19 pandemic presented.
Cheptegei and Kiplimio will face competition for the top accolade from USA’s Donavan Brazier, Kenya’s Timothy Cheruiyot, USA’s Ryan Crouser, Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, USA’s Noah Lyles, Daniel Stahl from Sweden, Johannes Vetter from Germany and Norway’s Karsten Warholm.
A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.
The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics’ social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a ‘like’ on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result.
Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Sunday 15 November. At the conclusion of the voting process, five men and five women finalists will be announced by World Athletics.
The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2020 on Saturday 5 December.
The female nominees will be announced tomorrow, Tuesday 3rd November.
List of nominees
Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda: Broke world records at 5000m (12:35.36), 10,000m (26:11.00) and 5km on the roads (12:51), was fourth at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships on his debut over the distance
Jacob Kiplimo, Uganda: Won world half marathon title in a championship record of 58:49, ran a world-leading 7:26.64 over 3000m, the fastest time in the world since 2007
Donavan Brazier, USA: Ran world-leading 800m times indoors (1:44.22, North American indoor record) and outdoors (1:43.15), won all seven of his races over all distances.
Timothy Cheruiyot, Kenya: Ran world-leading 3:28.45 over 1500m, undefeated in three 1500m races
Ryan Crouser, USA: Undefeated in 10 shot put competitions, his 22.91m world-leading performance moved him to equal third on the world all-time list
Mondo Duplantis, Sweden: Broke the world record in the pole vault twice (6.17m and 6.18m) and produced the highest outdoor vault of all time (6.15m), undefeated in 16 competitions
Noah Lyles, USA: Undefeated in five finals, ran a world-leading 19.76 over 200m
Daniel Stahl, Sweden: Won 17 of his 19 discus competitions, threw a world-leading 71.37m
Johannes Vetter, Germany: Won eight of his nine javelin competitions, threw a world-leading 97.76m, the second farthest throw in history
Karsten Warholm, Norway: Ran a world-leading 46.87 in the 400m hurdles, the second fastest performance in history, undefeated in nine 400m/400m hurdles races and set world best of 33.78 in 300m hurdles
