Home > The Scene

IAAF Male Athlete of the Year finalists announced

There were few surprises among the finalists for IAAF Male Athlete of the Year, announced today

November 20, 2018
Share on SMS

The IAAF has announced the finalists for Male Athlete of the Year. They are sprinter Christian Coleman, hurdler Abderrahman Samba, marathoner Eliud Kipchoge, decathlete Kevin Mayer and pole vaulter Armand Duplantis. 

RELATED: Caster Semenya conspicuously absent from IAAF Athlete of the Year finalist list

Coleman came into 2018 as the reigning world champion in the 100m and the world record-holder in the indoor 60m. At the Diamond League final in Brussels in August 2018, Coleman ran the fastest 100m (9.79 seconds) in the three years since Usain Bolt ran the same time at the 2015 world championships. 

At the Paris Diamond League in June 2018, Samba became only the second man ever to run sub-47 in the 400m hurdles. He improved his personal best five times and broke the Diamond League record four times in six appearances.

On the same September day that Eliud Kipchoge broke the world record in the marathon in Berlin, Kevin Mayer broke Ashton Eaton’s decathlon world record by 81 points on his home turf in France, scoring 9,126. 

And we all know what Eliud Kipchoge did that day in Berlin, smashing Dennis Kimetto’s 2:02:57 world record in the marathon by 78 seconds. Kipchoge also won the Virgin Money London Marathon this year, in 2:04:16 on a blistering hot day. (Our money’s on Kipchoge for Athlete of the Year.)

1,500m runner Timothy Cheruiyot and 800m runner Emmanuel Korir did not receive enough votes to make the list of finalists. 

Public votes made up 25% of the short list decision‚ votes by the IAAF council 50% and votes by “the IAAF Family” 25%.

The winners will be announced in Monaco on December 4.

Check out the latest buyer's guide:

Top 10 shoes our testers are loving this April

We tested tons of great shoes this year, but only the very best make the list