Kipyegon facing tough opposition for World Athlete of the Year title

Two-time Olympic and world 1500m champion Faith Kipyegon is the only Kenyan athlete who has made the high-competitive nominee list for Women’s World Athlete of the Year.

Nominations reflect some of the standout performances achieved at the World Athletics Championships held in Oregon, World Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade, one-day meeting circuits and other events around the world.

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Kipyegon makes the list that has other world champions for her exploits this season that saw her win her second world title in 1500m and defend her Diamond League (DL) trophy in Zurich.

The back-to-back Olympic champion ran a world-leading Kenyan record of 3:50.37, just three tenths of a second off the world record at the Monaco Diamond League where she had set her sight on breaking the record held by Genzebe Dibaba.

Nigeria’s Tobi Amusan is the only other African athlete to make the list after her stunning performance in Oregon where she broke the 100m hurdles record after clocking 12.12 seconds. She also won the Diamond League, Commonwealth and African 100m hurdles titles.

World shot put champion and world indoor shot-put silver medalist, Chase Ealey, of the USA makes the list. She has the world leading distance of 20.51 and is the DL champion.

‘Mommy rocket’, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won the world 100m title, claiming a fifth gold medal in the event. She won the DL title which was a crowning moment to a season that saw her run a world-leading 10.62 among her record seven sub-10.70 100m races of the season.

Others include;

Kimberly Garcia, PER

- World 20km race walk champion to win Peru’s first ever World Athletics Championships medal

- World 35km race walk champion in a South American record to complete a race walk double

- World Athletics Race Walking Team Championships 20km bronze medallist

 Shericka Jackson, JAM

- World 200m champion

- Diamond League 200m champion

- Ran a world-leading 21.45 to move to second on the world all-time list

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Yaroslava Mahuchikh, UKR

- World indoor high jump champion and world high jump silver medallist

- European high jump champion

- Jumped a world-leading 2.05m, equalling the outdoor national best

 Sydney McLaughlin, USA

- World 400m hurdles and 4x400m champion

- Broke the world 400m hurdles record with 51.41 at the US Championships

- Further improved the world record to 50.68 to win the world title

 Shaunae Miller-Uibo, BAH

- World 400m champion

- World indoor 400m champion

- NACAC 400m champion

 Yulimar Rojas, VEN

- World indoor and outdoor triple jump champion

- Diamond League triple jump champion

- Improved her world record to 15.74m in Belgrade

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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 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 Monday 31 October. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics.

The winners will be revealed on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December.