- Kipchoge has been nominated for his World Record run in Berlin
- He has won the award two times before
- Moroccan Soufiane El Bakkali is the other African in the list
Marathon world record holder Eliud Kipchoge is the leading name on the initial list of 10 nominations for the World Male Athlete of the Year Award, 2022.
The Kenyan marathon legend has been nominated after a hugely successful year of setting records. He has run two marathons this year, winning in New York in new Course Record time and winning Berlin, in World record time.
This is the second time that Kipchoge has broken the World Record. He set a mark of 2:01:39 in 2018, when he won the World Athletics top award for the first time. Two weeks ago, he lowered the mark further by 30 seconds.
He has also won the award in 2019, when he became the first ever man to run the Marathon in under two hours. He now looks to become only the third man in the history of the awards to win it three times or more after Morocco’s Hicham El Gourouj and Jamaican sprint king Usain Bolt who has won it six times.
Mondo Duplantis offers competition
But, he will not be short of competition in the run up to the award. The biggest competition he faces is from Swedish pole vaulter Mondo Duplantis who has equally had a successful year. Duplantis has won both the indoor and outdoor world titles.
On top of that he has lowered world records in both the indoors and outdoors, topping that up with a Diamond League Trophy and the European tile
Also nominated is Moroccan steeplechaser Soufiane El Bakkali who has outdone the Kenyan dominance in the water and barrier race. He won the world title and also went on to clinch the Diamond Trophy.
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, Instagram and YouTube this week; a ‘like’ on Facebook, Instagram and YouTube or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50pc of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25pc of the final result.
Voting for the World Athletes of the Year closes at midnight on Monday 31 October. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.
Here is the list of 10 for the Award
Kristjan Ceh, SLO
– World discus champion
– Diamond League discus champion, throwing a national record 71.27m on the circuit in Birmingham
– European discus silver medallist
Alison dos Santos, BRA
– World 400m hurdles champion
– Diamond League 400m hurdles champion
– Ran a world-leading South American record of 46.29
Mondo Duplantis, SWE
– World pole vault champion indoors and outdoors
– Diamond League and European pole vault champion
– Improved his world record to 6.19m and 6.20m indoors, and then 6.21m outdoors
Soufiane El Bakkali, MAR
– World 3000m steeplechase champion
– Diamond League 3000m steeplechase champion
– Unbeaten in 2022, running a world-leading 7:58.28 in Rabat
Grant Holloway, USA
– World 110m hurdles champion
– World indoor 60m hurdles champion
– Diamond League 110m hurdles champion
Jakob Ingebrigtsen, NOR
– World 5000m champion, world 1500m silver medallist indoors and outdoors
– European 1500m and 5000m champion
– Diamond League 1500m champion in a world-leading 3:29.02
Eliud Kipchoge, KEN
– Improved his world marathon record to 2:01:09
– Berlin Marathon champion
– Tokyo Marathon champion
Noah Lyles, USA
– World 200m champion
– Diamond League 200m champion
– Ran a world-leading national record of 19.31 to move to third on the world all-time list
Anderson Peters, GRN
– World javelin champion
– Commonwealth javelin silver medallist
– Threw a world-leading NACAC record of 93.07m, moving to fifth on the world all-time list
Pedro Pichardo, POR
– World triple jump champion with a world-leading leap of 17.95m
– World indoor triple jump silver medallist
– European triple jump champion
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