PARIS, France, October 1 – Newly crowned world marathon record holder, Wilson Kipsang, is the only Kenyan in the 10-man shortlist for the IAAF 2013 World Athlete of the Year Award.
Kipsang who stopped the clock at an astonishing 2:03:23 on Sunday in the streets of Berlin succeeded compatriot Patrick Makau who set the previous 2:03:38 standard at the same course in 2011.
He will compete among others, the World and Olympic champions Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Mohamed Farah of Britain for the top award that was last won by David Rudisha who in 2010 aged just 21, became the youngest ever winner of the prestigious accolade.
Bolt and Farah starred at the recent World Athletics Championships in Moscow where the Jamaican won gold in the 100 and 200 metres and the Briton clinched a rare 5,000-10,000 metres double.
The women’s shortlist has top Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce as well as Ethiopian long-distance stars Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba with no Kenyan on the list.
Vivian Cheruiyot, the 2011 double world champion, controversially missed the top women’s award given to Australia’s Sally Pearson.
The shortlist will be cut back to just three after a voting process and the winners will be announced by the IAAF at a ceremony on November 16.
Candidates for the World Athlete of the Year Award:-
Men
Mohammed Aman (ETH)
Usain Bolt (JAM)
Bohdan Bondarenko (UKR)
Ashton Eaton (USA)
Mohamed Farah (GBR)
Robert Harting (GER)
Wilson Kipsang (KEN)
Aleksandr Menkov (RUS)
LaShawn Merritt (USA)
Teddy Tamgho (FRA)
Women
Valerie Adams (NZL)
Abeba Aregawi (SWE)
Meseret Defar (ETH)
Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH)
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM)
Zuzana Hejnova (CZE)
Caterine Ibargüen (COL)
Sandra Perkovic (CRO)
Brianna Rollins (USA)
Svetlana Shkolina (RUS)
