Eliud Kipchoge Nominated for IAAF Male Athlete of the Year award

Kenyan running champion Eliud Kipchoge recently broke the world record for completing the full 42 km marathon in less than two hours. As a result, the new record holder has been nominated for the IAAF Male Athlete of the Year award. Alongside Kipchoge, his Kenyan counterpart Timothy Cheruiyot (the 1500m world champion) is also in contention. The two will battle with nine other nominees for winning the prestigious award, which is to happen on November 23, 2019, in Monaco.

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Kipchoge had won the same award last year after his heroics in Berlin and is considered to be the favourite to win it once again following his stint of breaking the two-hour marathon barrier on Saturday in Vienna, Austria. He completed the marathon with an impressive timing of 1:59:40. Kipchoge had also triumphed in the London marathon with the timing of 2:02:37. While Timothy Cheruiyot has emerged victorious in 10 of the 11 races he featured in this season as well at the World Championships in Doha last month.

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List of the other 9 nominees 

Potential Contenders

Donavan Brazier: World 800m champion
Christian Coleman: World 100m champion
Noah Lyles: World 200m champion

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Other Contenders

• Joshua Cheptegei (Uganda)
• Sam Kendricks (USA)
• Steven Gardiner (Bahamas)
• Daniel Stahl (Sweden), 
• Christian Taylor (USA)
• Karsten Warholm (Norway)

All the nominees were selected by an exclusive international panel of athletics experts, which included representatives from all the six continental areas of the IAAF. Out of the 11 nominated athletes, only five will make the final shortlist on the basis of votes. A three-way voting process will finalize the top five. Fans can cast their vote online via the IAAF's social media sites while the IAAF Council and IAAF council will vote through emails. Individual graphics for each athlete will be posted on Instagram, Facebook and Twitter this week; a 'like' on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter will count as one vote.

Also Read | Eliud Kipchoge Becomes First Man To Complete Marathon In Under 2 Hours