World Athletics Champion Eliud Kipchoge is staring at bagging another accolade going by votes on social media for the 2019 IAAF Athlete of the Year Award race.
Kipchoge, who recently broke a two-hour barrier in marathon in Vienna, is among the 11 great athletes nominated by the world athletics governing body IAAF for the gong in mid-October ahead of the awarding day.
🚨 Nominees for Male World Athlete of the Year 🚨
The nominations of 11 athletes reflects the range of exceptional performances that the sport has witnessed this year, at the IAAF World Athletics Championships in Doha, the Diamond League and in road and cross country events. pic.twitter.com/zjzK30bbIt
— IAAF (@iaaforg) October 14, 2019
On their announcement, IAAF set a three-way voting process to determine the five-member finalists. The IAAF Council and the IAAF Family are casting their votes by email, while fans are voting online via the IAAF’s social media platforms.
A ‘like’ on Facebook and Instagram or a retweet on Twitter counts as one vote.
✨ #AthleticsAwards announcement@EliudKipchoge is one of 11 nominees for Male Athlete of the Year 2019.
Retweet this post to vote for him 🗳 pic.twitter.com/IkxjsVPaeP
— IAAF (@iaaforg) October 14, 2019
From our crosscheck about 15 days later, the 2016 Olympics champion has taken a huge lead with only five days to the closure of public voting.
✨ #AthleticsAwards announcement@tim_cheruiyot is one of 11 nominees for Male Athlete of the Year 2019.
Retweet this post to vote for him 🗳 pic.twitter.com/3tHFyYhYa5
— IAAF (@iaaforg) October 14, 2019
So far, the Kenyan athlete has received more than 20,000 retweets, 18,000 more than his closest rival and Ugandan Joshua Cheptegei. Kenyan compatriot and 1500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot comes at a distant 3rd.
Other nominees with negligible votes so far are U.S. trio of World 800m champion Donavan Brazier, World 100m champion Christian Coleman and World 200m champion Noah Lyles, Steven Gardiner (Bahamas), Sam Kendricks (USA), Noah Lyles (USA), Daniel Stahl (Sweden), Christian Taylor (USA) and Karsten Warholm (Norway).
✨ #AthleticsAwards announcement@joshuacheptege1 is one of 11 nominees for Male Athlete of the Year 2019.
Retweet this post to vote for him 🗳 pic.twitter.com/XEim9sE8J4
— IAAF (@iaaforg) October 14, 2019
The 11 nominees were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of the IAAF.
The annual award ceremony is set for November 23 in Monaco.