Our very own Eliud Kipchoge is now a few steps closer to clinching the Male Athlete of the Year awards ahead of the 2018 IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) Athletics Awards.
This comes after the Marathon World Record Holder Eliud Kipchoge made it to the final shortlist of five for this year’s IAAF Male Athlete of the Year with the award set to be held next month in Monaco.
According to IAAF, the five shortlisted athletes represent five countries from four Area associations and have illustrated excellence across nearly all athletics disciplines in 2018. Kipchoge becomes the only Kenyan athlete to remain on the list after Timothy Cheruiyot and Emmanuel Korir and other nominees were dropped after the voting process.
Kipchoge who became the first man to run the marathon under two hours will battle for the crown alongside American sprinter Chris Coleman, Swedish Pole vaulter Armand Duplantis, French Heptathlete Kevin Mayer and Qatari 400m hurdler Abdelrahman Samba.
🚨 Alert 🚨
💥 #AthleticsAwards finalist announcement 💥
These are the 5 finalists for the Male World Athlete of the Year 2018.
The winner will be announced live on stage on 4 December at the IAAF Athletics Awards 💫
More ➡https://t.co/wrQ4ltkAsM pic.twitter.com/9zrtvF9Y8E
— IAAF (@iaaforg) November 20, 2018
The 34-year old athlete will be looking to become the second Kenyan to win the IAAF award after David Rudisha was awarded the crown in 2010 making him the first Kenyan to ever receive the accolade.
The Olympic champion ran a superb race at the Berlin Marathon in September, shedding 78 seconds off compatriot Dennis Kimetto’s record, setting a new mark of 2 hours, 1 minutes and 39 seconds.
A three-way voting process which closed on November 13th, 2018 determined the finalists: The IAAF Council and the IAAF Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via the IAAF’s social media platforms. On the Instagram and Facebook platofrms, a ‘like’ was considered as a vote while on Twitter, a ‘retweet’ counted as as a vote. The IAAF Council’s vote accounted for 50% of the result, while the IAAF Family’s votes and the public votes made 25% of the final result.
Here’s a list of the final shortlists for the Male Athlete of the Year Awards:
Christian Coleman (USA)
– World indoor record and world indoor champion at 60m
– World lead and IAAF Diamond League champion at 100m
Armand Duplantis (SWE)
– European champion at pole vault with a world-leading height
– World U20 champion
– Eight world U20 records or bests, indoors and out
Eliud Kipchoge (KEN)
– London Marathon champion
– Berlin Marathon champion with the biggest improvement on a men’s marathon world record since 1967
Kevin Mayer (FRA)
– World indoor champion at heptathlon
– World record at decathlon
Abderrahman Samba (QAT)
– World lead and unbeaten in nine finals at 400m hurdles, setting the world’s quickest time since 1992
– Asian Games champion at 400m hurdles and 4x400m
– IAAF Continental Cup winner
– Asian indoor 4x400m champion
With 3,000m steeplechase World Re
cord holder Beatrice Chepkoech also nominated for the female award, Kenya will look to complete a first ever double in Monaco.
Kenyans now looks to the two to fly the country flag high as they set out to bring the award home come next month. Do you think Eliud Kipchoge stands a chance to win the prestigious award?