Barshim to vie with Farah and Van Niekerk for ‘Athlete of the Year’ prize

Qatar’s high jump world champion Mutaz Barshim is locked in a three-waybattle with British distance running great Mo Farah and South African400m and 200m ace Wayde Van Niekerk for this year’s IAAF Athlete of theYear Award.One of this trio will succeed retired Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt,the current holder of the accolade, when the winner is announced at aceremony in Monaco on November 24.The three were shortlisted for the top prize from an initial list of 10athletes announced a month ago by the International Association ofAthletics Federations (IAAF).If Barshim wins the award, it will cap a dream year for the world highjump champion who also won the ANOC Best Athlete in Asia award last weekin Prague.Barshim was unbeaten last season, sweeping all Diamond Leaguecompetitions before being crowned world champion in London, where he wonthe global high jump title with a leap of 2.35 metres. The 26-year-old, whose 2.43m best is the second-highest in history afterCuban Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45 set almost a quarter of a century ago,has won silver and bronze at the last two Olympics and silver in the2013 World Championships.  Farah, who was knighted this year, is the most successful British trackathlete in modern Olympic Games history. He is the 2012 and 2016 Olympicgold medallist in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, and is the secondathlete in modern Olympic Games history, after Lasse Virén, to win boththe 5,000 and 10,000m titles at successive Olympic Games. Farah alsocompleted the ‘distance double’ at the 2013 and 2015 World Championshipsin Athletics.This year, he won the 10,000m at the IAAF World Championships in Londonbut had to settle for silver in the 5,000m, finishing behind Ethiopia’sMuktar Edris.Van Niekerk is the current world record holder, world champion andOlympic champion in the 400 metres, and also holds the world best timein the 300 metres.In the 2016 Olympic Games 400m, he won the gold medal with a worldrecord time of 43.03 seconds, beating the time of 43.18 seconds set byMichael Johnson during the 1999 World Championships in Athletics inSeville.At the 2017 World Championships, he won the 400m but missed a doublewhen he had to be content with the silver in the 200m, won by RamilGuliyev of Turkey.On the distaff side, Ethiopia’s 10,000m Olympic champion Almaz Ayana isin the running to win a second successive women’s world athlete of theyear honour.She is up against Greek polevault star Ekaterini Stefanidi andNafissatou Thiam, Belgium’s heptathlon Olympic and world gold medallist.The men’s and women’s finalists were whittled down from an original listof 10 by a vote of IAAF council members, fans and fellow athletes.A three-way voting process determined the finalists.The IAAF Council and the IAAF Family cast their votes by email, whilefans voted online via the IAAF’s social media platforms. The IAAFCouncil’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the IAAF Family’svotes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result.Voting closed on 16 October.