World Athlete of the Year 2015 Longlist – Road Running Candidates: Kipchoge and Dibaba
Eliud Kipchoge and Mare Dibaba have earned the most votes in the road running category in the first round of voting for the 2015 IAAF World Athlete of the Year award.
Kipchoge won the London Marathon earlier this year in a world-leading 2:04:42. The Kenyan then bettered that world-leading mark when winning the Berlin Marathon in September in 2:04:00.
Dibaba started her year with a 2:19:52 victory at the Xiamen Marathon. After finishing second at the Boston Marathon, the Ethiopian went on to win the marathon title at the IAAF World Championships, Beijing 2015.
Last month the IAAF Family* was asked to select nine men and nine women from each of the following categories: sprints, hurdles, middle and long distance, road running, race walking, jumps, throws, combined events and multi-terrain.
The longlist will comprise the top-voted athletes in each category. The candidates from the other categories in the world athlete of the year voting will be announced over the coming days.
An international panel of 10 experts** will then select the finalists – three men and three women – the names of whom will be announced on 17 and 18 November.
From those finalists, the Council of the International Athletics Foundation (IAF) will select the male and female World Athletes of the Year.
The announcement of the winners will take place live on stage during a special ceremony in Monaco at the IAF World Athletics Gala on Saturday 28 November.
Source: IAAF.org
