Marathon world record holder Brigid Kosgei is one of five finalists for the Female World Athlete 2019 award.
Last month the Kenyan broke Briton Paula Radcliffe’s 16-year-old world record, running a time of 2hrs 14mins 04secs to win the Chicago Marathon.
Kosgei, 25, also became the youngest winner of the London marathon in April.
American Dalilah Muhammad, Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Venezuelan Yulimar Rojas and the Netherlands’ Sifan Hassan are also up for the award.
Sprinter Fraser-Pryce won the world 100m and 4x100m titles in world-leading times of 10.71 and 41.44 in Doha, while Hassan broke the world mile record with a time of 4:12:33 in Monaco.
Triple-jumper Rojas won nine of her 12 competitions, including gold at the World Championships with 15.37m, while Muhammad set a new world record of 52.16 in the 400m hurdles in Doha.
Britain’s world heptathlon gold medallist Katarina Johnson-Thompson missed out on the shortlist, having featured among the initial 11 nominees.
In the men category, two Africans are listed in the top five shortlist. They include; Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei who won world cross-country title in Aarhus and also picked the world 10,000m title in a world-leading 26:48.36. Cheptegei won the IAAF Diamond League 5000m title this season.
The other African is Kenya’s Eliud Kipchoge who won the 2019 London Marathon in a course record of 2:02:37. He also ran 1:59:40.2 to win the 42.195km marathon in Vienna.
America’s Sam Kendricks who won world pole vault title and cleared a world-leading 6.06m to win the US Title is also on the list.
Kendricks won 12 of his 17 outdoor competitions this season, including the Diamond League final
Another American athlete, Noah Lyles, who won world 200m and 4x100m titles at the Worlds in Doha and also ran a world-leading 19.50 in Lausanne to move to fourth on the world all-time list is in the race for the top honour.
He won Diamond League titles at 100m and 200m.
Norway’s Karsten Warholm who won the worlds 400m hurdles title in Doha and was undefeated indoors and outdoors at all distances, including at the Diamond League final and the European Indoor Championships completes the list of nominees.
He clocked world-leading 46.92, the second-fastest time in history.
According to IAAF, the winners will be determined through a three-way voting process.
“The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via our social media platforms.
“The Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the Athletics Family’s votes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result.”
Voting for the Female World Athlete of the Year closed on 5 November.
The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live on stage at the World Athletics Awards 2019 in Monaco on Saturday 23 November.
