Cheruiyot shortlisted for World Athletics award

World 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot is the only Kenyan in the ten-man shortlist for the 2020 Male World Athlete of the Year award.

This year’s awards ceremony will be held virtually on December 5 owing to the novel coronavirus.

In the pandemic-hit season, Cheruiyot still dominated the 1500m event winning three races with a world leading time of 3:28.45

Cheruiyot will face stiff challenge from the Ugandan duo of world 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei and the recently-crowned world half marathon champion Jacob Kiplimo.

Also, in the shortlist are trio of world 800m champion Donavan Brazier, world 200m champion Noah Lyles and Olympic shot put champion Ryan Crouser of USA.

Others are; world pole vault silver medallist Mondo Duplantis and Daniel Stahl of Sweden, Johannes Vetter of Germany and Karsten Warholm of Norway.

In order to determine the winner, a three-way process has been developed where;

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 final shortlist of five athletes will be released after the voting process concludes on November 15 where athletics fans from around the world will help select the finalists.

The Female World Athlete of the Year nominees will be released on Tuesday.

World Marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge and world 400m hurdles champion Dalilah Muhammad were named the winners of the 2019 awards in the men’s and women’s categories respectively.

The nominees for 2020 Male World Athlete of the Year are (in alphabetical order):

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

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

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

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

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