American Noah Lyles and world record breakers Mondo Duplantis of Sweden and Eliud Kipchoge of Kenya are among five finalists for World Athletics Male Athlete of the Year.
Lyles, bidding to be the first U.S. man to win the award since decathlete Ashton Eaton in 2015, broke Michael Johnson‘s American record in the 200m in winning the world title in the event in 19.31 seconds in Eugene, Oregon, in July. He became the third-fastest man in history behind Jamaicans Usain Bolt and Yohan Blake.
Duplantis, the Louisiana-raised Swede, upped his pole vault world record three times in 2022 and swept the world indoor and outdoor and Diamond League titles in the event.
Kipchoge broke his own world record in the marathon, clocking 2 hours, 1 minute, 9 seconds to prevail in Berlin on Sept. 25.
The other finalists are Moroccan steeplechaser Soufiane El Bakkali, who went undefeated in 2022, including world and Diamond League titles, and Norwegian runner Jakob Ingebrigtsen, the world outdoor 5000m champion who ran the world’s fastest mile in 21 years.
The Female Athlete of the Year finalists were announced Monday.
The finalists for each award were chosen from 10 nominees via three-way voting process that ended Oct. 31: World Athletics Council (50%), World Athletics family (25%) and a fan vote (25%) via Facebook, Instagram and YouTube likes and Twitter retweets on the post for the specified athlete.
Winners will be named in early December.
Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah and Norwegian Karsten Warholm won the awards last year.
OlympicTalk is on Apple News. Favorite us!
