The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) has short-listed ten male and ten female athletes for the 2013 World Athlete of the Year award. The candidates have been selected by an IAAF panel of athletics experts, who include representatives from all six continental areas of the IAAF.
The female short-listers are: Valerie Adams (New Zealand), Abeba Aregawi (Sweden), Meseret Defar and Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica), Zuzana Hejnova (Czech Republic), Caterine Ibargüen (Colombia), Sandra Perkovic (Croatia), Brianna Rollins (USA), and Svetlana Shkolina (Russia).
Among the men are: Mohammed Aman (Ethiopia), Usain Bolt (Jamaica), Bohdan Bondarenko (Ukraine), Ashton Eaton and LaShawn Merritt (USA), Mohamed Farah (GBR), Robert Harting (Germany), Wilson Kipsang (Kenya), Aleksandr Menkov (Russia), and Teddy Tamgho (France).
An email poll involving the World Athletics Family began yesterday, October 1, and will close on Sunday, October 27 at midnight. At the end of the voting process, three male and three female finalists will be selected and announced by the IAAF.
The Council of the International Athletics Foundation will then select the male and female winners, with the announcement taking place live on stage during the 2013 World Athletics Gala on Saturday, November 16.