Qatar star Abderrahman Samba is among 10 athletes nominated for the Male World Athlete of the Year, the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced in Monaco yesterday.
The 400m hurdler was in sensational form this year, finishing unbeaten in nine finals and also setting the second-best time in history when he clocked 46.98 seconds in the Paris Diamond League meeting in June.
That effort narrowly missed the world record of 46.78 seconds set by American Kevin Young at the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona, but the 23-year-old is determined to break it in 2019, preferably at the IAAF World Championships in Doha.
Samba and his coach Hennie Kotze are already working on a plan to see the world record fall and the duo made no secret of it during the course of an interview with Gulf Times during the Asian Games in Jakarta last August.
“To be honest even I was taken by surprise. I didn’t realise he would come close to the world record,” Kotze said, referring to Samba’s Paris heroics. 
“He was fantastic in the Diamond League. His consistency has been amazing. Surely we are planning for the world record and the title at the IAAF World Championships in Doha next year. But we have to be careful with our planning.” 
Samba himself is keen to break the world record in front of his home fans in Doha.
“To be sure, that’s my aim. It would be fantastic to achieve that in Doha,” Samba said after powering to gold in the 400m hurdles at the Asian Games.
The 10 nominees were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of the IAAF.
This week marks the opening of the voting process for the 2018 World Athletes of the Year ahead of the IAAF Athletics Awards 2018 in Monaco on Tuesday 4 December.
A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.
The IAAF Council and the IAAF Family will cast their votes by e-mail, while fans can vote online via the IAAF’s social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram this week; a ‘like’ on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote. 
The IAAF Council’s vote will count for 50% of the result, while the IAAF Family’s votes and the public votes will each count for 25% of the final result. Voting for the Male World Athlete of the Year closes on 13 November. At the conclusion of the voting process, five men and five women finalists will be announced by the IAAF.
Other nominees: Timothy Cheruiyot (KEN), Christian Coleman (USA), Armand Duplantis (SWE),  Eliud Kipchoge (KEN), Emmanuel Korir (KEN), Noah Lyles (USA), Luvo Manyonga (RSA), Kevin Mayer (FRA), Tomas Walsh (NZL).
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