Almaz Ayana among nominees for World Athlete of the Year award
Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana is among nominees selected for the 2017 World Athletes of the Year.
A list of 10 men and 10 women nominees have been selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of the IAAF.
Almaz, Olympic champion and world 10,000m record holder, started off her year in style by claiming the 10,000m gold at the IAAF World Championships in London, finishing in 30:16.32, around 300 metres clear of her rivals. In a press conference after the race, Ayana said, “I am very happy to win this title, much more than when I won the Olympic gold because I have been sick this year and didn’t expect it. In fact, this was my first race of 2017.”
She went on to win the silver medal in the women’s 5,000m finals on the last day of the World Championships, saying “Compared to Rio this is a bigger achievement.” “I’ve had many injuries this year so I am very happy with two medals. I have been injured for the whole season and haven’t been able to get over it. The pain came back after the 10,000m…I won’t give up going for 5000m and 10,000m. I won gold and bronze in Rio and now gold and silver, so this is a step up.”
Almaz was named female the 2016 World Athletes of the Year, becoming the third Ethiopian woman to win this award, following Genzebe Dibaba in 2015 and Meseret Defar in 2007. Can she do it again? Fingers crossed!
VOTING PROCEDURE FOR 2017 WORLD ATHLETES OF THE YEAR
A three-way voting process will determine the finalists.
The IAAF Council and the IAAF Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can vote online via the IAAF’s social media platforms.
To vote for Almaz via Facebook, simply ‘like’ her photo of on the IAAF Facebook page at https://goo.gl/1Pyu4U. On Twitter, a retweet will count as one vote https://goo.gl/ym2JUC.
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 closes on 16 October. At the conclusion of the voting process, three men and three women finalists will be announced by the IAAF.
The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live on stage at the IAAF Athletics Awards 2017 in Monaco on Friday 24 November.
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