SAMBA AMONG FIVE FINALISTS FOR TOP IAAF AWARD

AlKass Digital

Doha, Qatar- Qatar’s Abderrahman Samba is just a step away from a major honour as the star 400m hurdler has been shortlisted among the five finalists for the 2018 IAAF Male-Athlete-of-the-Year award, yesterday.

The 23-year-old won everything that fell on his way the last season. Samba’s achievements in the 2018 calendar year includes the world’s quickest time since 1992. He remained unbeaten in nine finals at 400m hurdles and 4x400m. The top athlete also won the IAAF Continental Cup and the Asian indoor 4x400m champion.

A three-way voting process determined the finalists. The IAAF Council and the IAAF Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via the IAAF’s social media platforms. The IAAF Council’s vote counted for 5

World record holders Eliud Kipchoge and Kevin Mayer are also among the five nominees for the top male award. Thirty-four-year-old Kenyan Kipchoge, the Rio 2016 Olympic gold medallist, smashed the previous marathon world record by a towering 78 seconds in Berlin in September, five months after winning this year’s London Marathon.

Frenchman Mayer sensationally recorded a world record in the decathlon on the same day as Kipchoge’s heroics - September 16. He tallied an amazing 9,126 points at the annual meeting in Talence to move past American Ashton Eaton’s previous mark of 9,045, set in 2015.

Mayer, the reigning world champion and Olympic silver medallist, also won the heptathlon at the World Indoor Championships in Birmingham this year. American Christian Coleman and Sweden’s Armand Duplantis are also in the running for the award.

The male and female World-Athletes-of-the-Year will be announced live on stage at the IAAF Athletics Awards 2018 on December 4 in Monaco.