Eliud Kipchoge, who became the first man to run the marathon in under two hours is one of the five finalists for the male World Athlete of the Year award to be announced later this month.
The Kenyan won the London Marathon in a course record of 2:02:37, but it was his unofficial time 1:59:40.2 in the 42.195km in Vienna that has cemented his prowess.
He holds the official world record in the marathon with a time of 2:01:39, set in September last year at the Berlin Marathon. His run in Berlin broke the previous world record by 1 minute and 18 seconds.
The father of three is seen as the the greatest marathoner of the modern era although he started off as 5,000 runners, winning the world championships title in 2003 when he was just 18.
Of the 13 major marathon races he has participated in, Kipchoge had lost only once, to Wilson Kipsang Kiprotich at the 2013 Berlin Marathon.
Diamond League sprint double champion Noah Lyles is another leading contender for the award. Seen as the man to take over the mantle from Jamaican legend Usain Bolt, Lyles won both the 100m and 200m races at the Diamond League.
The America ran a world-leading 19.50 in Lausanne to move to fourth on the world all-time list. He holds personal best of 9.86 seconds for the century dash.
At the world championships this year, Lyles chose to skip the 100m but won the 200m and was a a member of the American relay team that clinched the 4x100m gold.
Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm, who won the world 400m hurdles, is the other nominee for the award. It was his second world title, having also won it in 2017.
Warlhom has been undefeated indoors and outdoors in the hurdles this year, including at the Diamond League final and the European Indoor Championships
Warholm’s time of 46.92 seconds for the 400 m hurdles is the second fastest time in history, behind Kevin Young’s 1992 world record.
Ugandan Joshua Cheptegui is perhaps the most versatile of the nominees for the award.
He won the won world cross-country title in Aarhus and the world 10,000m title in a world-leading time of 26:48.36 in Doha. Cheptegui also won the Diamond League 5000m title this year.
Cheptegei first played football and tried out both the long jump and triple jump before discovering running.
Took time to pay a courtesy visit to my former school #MMcollegeWairaka where it all started
— Joshua Cheptegei?? (@joshuacheptege1) October 20, 2019
The students and staff where impressed to hear from their own.
I then encouraged the students to remain discipline, dedicated as they keep striving to achieve their desired dreams pic.twitter.com/IIkYvauanq
The second American shortlisted for the award is pole vaulter Sam Kendricks, who won the world title in Doha.
He had cleared a world-leading 6.06m to win the US title. He is a three-time indoor and six-time outdoor US national champion and was a bronze medallist at the 2016 Olympics.
Kendricks, a first lieutenant in the United States Army Reserve, has won 12 of his 17 outdoor competitions, including the Diamond League final this year.
A three-way voting process determined the finalists. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via our social media platforms. The Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result.
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