World’s 400m record holder Wayde van Niekerk has been shortlisted for the 2016 Athlete of the Year Awards scheduled to be held in Monaco next month.
The South African will battle world’s fastest man, Usain Bolt, and long distance expert, Mo Farah, for the 2016 IAAF Men’s Athlete of the Year.
In a release on Wednesday, November 9, the International Federation of Athletics Associations (IAAF) said the finalists were determined by a three-way voting process.
“The IAAF Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, the IAAF Family’s* vote counted for 25% and a public vote, conducted via social media, counted for 25% of the final result.”
Van Niekerk broke the 400m record in grand style at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, racing in the finals with former Olympic champions Kirani James and LaShawn Merritts.
Among the athletes who missed out on the shortlist are decathlon world record holder Ashton Eaton, 800m Olympic Champion David Rudisha and 3,000m steeplechase expert Conseslus Kipruto.
For the women’s category, Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana, Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson and Poland’s Anita Wlodarczyk were shortlisted.
The likes of Caster Semenya and Vivian Cheruiyot could not make it into the shortlist.
The event will come off on December 2.
Sign up for GhanaStar.com to receive daily email alerts of breaking news in Ghana. GhanaStar.com is your source for all Ghana News. Get the latest Ghana news, breaking news, sports, politics, entertainment and more about Ghana, Africa and beyond.
