Dubai: American middle distance champion Donavan Brazier and Uganda’s long distance sensation Joshua Cheptegei are among the 10 athletes in contention for the Male World Athlete of the Year 2020 Awards this season.
This week marks the opening of the voting process for the World Athletics Awards 2020 that are scheduled to be held virtually on December 5. World Athletics has confirmed a list of 10 nominees for the Male World Athlete of the Year who were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics.
The nominations reflect the remarkable range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, despite the challenges being posed by the global COVID-19 pandemic.
Heading the list of nominees in the men’s is American Brazier who ran a world-best 800m indoor time of 1:44.22 while setting a North American indoor record and an outdoor time of 1:43.15. Till date, the 23-year-old from Grand Rapids, Michigan has won all seven of his races over all distances.
Brazier is joined by Uganda’s 24-year-old Cheptegei, the 2019 world champion in the 10,000 metres. Cheptegei is the tenth man in history to hold the 5,000 m and 10,000 m world records concurrently, both set earlier this year.
He broke the world records at 5000 m with a new time of 12:35.36 minutes and the 10,000 m with a time of 26:11.00 minutes. Cheptegei was placed fourth at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships on his debut over the distance last month.
Other top names featuring on the list of nominees include middle distance runner Timothy Cheruiyot of Kenya, American shot putter Ryan Crouser, Sweden’s pole vault jumper, Mondo Duplantis and Uganda’s half marathon specialist, Jacob Kiplimo.
Voting for the World Athletes of the Year will close at midnight on November 15. At the conclusion of the voting process, five men and five women finalists will be announced by World Athletics. The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live at the World Athletics Awards 2020 on December 5.
A similar list of 10 women athletes is yet to be firmed up and revealed by the world governing body for athletics.
Nominees: Donavan Brazier (US); Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda); Timothy Cheruiyot (Kenya); Ryan Crouser (US); Mondo Duplantis (Sweden); Jacob Kiplimo (Uganda); Noah Lyles (US); Daniel Stahl (Sweden); Johannes Vetter (Germany); Karsten Warholm (Norway).
