Joshua Cheptegei: Ugandan on final list for World Athletics Awards

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Ugandan long distance star Joshua Cheptegei has been named on the final shortlist for the Male Athlete of the Year Award.

The sports' governing body World Athletics reduced the nominees from 10 down to five on Monday.

Cheptegei's compatriot Jacob Kilplimo and Kenyan Timothy Cheruiyot were among those who missed out.

The World Athletics Awards 2020 will be staged as a virtual event on 5 December and streamed live on social media.

The other three athletes to miss out were USA's Donavan Brazier, his compatriot Noah Lyles and Swedish discus thrower Daniel Stahl.

The finalists

Joshua Cheptegei, Uganda

  • broke world records at 5000m (12:35.36), 10,000m (26:11.00) and 5km on the roads (12:51)
  • was fourth at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships on his debut over the distance

Ryan Crouser, USA

  • undefeated in 10 shot put competitions
  • his 22.91m world-leading performance moved him to equal third on the world all-time list

Mondo Duplantis, Sweden

  • broke the world record in the pole vault twice (6.17m and 6.18m) and produced the highest outdoor vault of all time (6.15m)
  • undefeated in 16 competitions

Johannes Vetter, Germany

  • won eight of his nine javelin competitions
  • threw a world-leading 97.76m, the second farthest throw in history

Karsten Warholm, Norway

  • ran a world-leading 46.87 in the 400m hurdles, the second fastest performance in history
  • undefeated in nine 400m/400m hurdles races and set world best of 33.78 in 300m hurdles

There was a three-way voting process to determine the finalists.

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 Male World Athlete of the Year closed on 15 November.