World marathon record holder Joshua Cheptegei is among the 10 nominees for the Male Athlete of the Year, World Athletics has announced.
Cheptegei is in a contest for best athlete of the year as he claimed gold and silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics in the men’s 5000m and 10,000m respectively.
The 25-year-old also won and posted world-leading 8:09.55 for two miles at the Prefontaine Classic Meet of the Diamond League in Eugene, Oregon.
Other nominees for the award include; Ryan Crouser, USA (Olympic and Diamond League shot put champion, Undefeated all year, and World shot put records indoors and outdoors), Mondo Duplantis, SWE (Olympic pole vault champion, Diamond League pole vault champion, and European indoor pole vault champion), Jakob Ingebrigtsen, NOR ( Olympic 1500m champion, European indoor 1500m champion, and European 1500m and 5000m records),
Eliud Kipchoge, KEN (Olympic marathon champion, Largest winning margin in men’s Olympic marathon since 1972, and Winner of Enschede Marathon), Pedro Pichardo, POR (Olympic triple jump champion, Diamond League triple jump champion, and European indoor triple jump champion), Daniel Stahl, SWE (Olympic discus champion, Diamond League discus champion, and Threw world-leading 71.40m),
Miltiadis Tentoglou, GRE (Olympic long jump champion, European indoor long jump champion, and Jumped world-leading 8.60m), Damian Warner, CAN (Olympic decathlon champion, Winner at the Götzis Hypo Meeting and National and Olympic record of 9018, moved to fourth on the world all-time list), and Karsten Warholm, NOR (Olympic 400m hurdles champion, Diamond League 400m hurdles champion, and World 400m hurdles record and world 300m hurdles best).
According to World Athletics, a three-way voting process will determine the finalists, that is to say; “The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the World Athletics social media platforms.
The World Athletics Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the World Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result.”
Last year, Cheptegei was nominated for the same award for breaking world records at 5000m (12:35.36), 10,000m (26:11.00), 5km on the roads (12:51), and finishing 4th at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships. However, he did not win the accolade.