World champion Almaz Ayana has been nominated for the 2017 World Athlete of the Year Award. Almaz, who is 10,000m gold medalist and 5,000m silver medalist at the 2017 IAAF London Athletics Championship, is among a list of top 10 women athletes from round the world.
Alamz Ayana was not able to take part in individual races for seven months due to injury. However, she recovered to go and become the winner in the 10,000m race at the 2017 IAAF Athletics Championship.
The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced on Monday that 20 athletes have been nominated for the 2017 World Athlete of the Year Award.
“The IAAF is pleased to confirm a list of 10 men and 10 women nominees who were selected by an international panel of athletics experts comprising representatives from all six continental areas of the IAAF,” the world athletics governing body stated.
According to IAAF, this week marks the opening of the voting process ahead of the IAAF Athletics Awards 2017, which is scheduled to be held Friday November 24 in Monaco. Other women nominees from Africa include South African middle distance runner and 2016 Olympic gold medalist, Caster Semenya, and Kenya middle distance runner, Hellen Obiri.
Obiri was a gold medalist in 5,000m in 2017 IAAF World Athletics Championships. This is Almaz’s second nomination for the IAAF Athletics Awards. 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 social media platforms. Individual graphics for each nominee will be posted on Facebook and Twitter. The IAAF councils vote will count for 50 percent of the result while the IAAF family’s votes and the public votes each count for 25 percent of the final result.
Voting closes on October 16, 2017. At the conclusion of the voting process, three men and women finalists will be announced by the IAAF. Finally, the male and female World Athlete of the Year will be announced live on stage.
