The nominee list was presented on Thursday. Candidates are selected by a panel of international athletic experts. This includes representatives from all six continental confederations in athletics.

The WC in Eugene, USA is a major highlight of international athletics in 2022.

WC gold in the 5000 meters, WC silver in the 1500 meters (both indoors and outdoors) and EC gold in both distances were awarded to Jakob Ingebrigtsen in what turned out to be a brilliant year for the Lura boy.

She also won the Diamond League series in the 1500 meters. In the final in Zurich, he set the best year in the world over distance with 3.29.02.

The Duplantist Phenomenon

The list of nominees also includes Slovenian disco star Kristjan Ceh. He took WC gold and EC silver, in addition to winning the Diamond League final.

Alison dos Santos from Brazil, one of Karsten Warholm’s main rivals in the 400 meter hurdles, seized the opportunity and became world champion when the Norwegian was not at her best during the WC at Eugene. He also won the Diamond League final in Switzerland.

A formidable challenger to Ingebrigtsen will also be Swedish phenom Mondo Duplantis. He won WC gold both indoors and outdoors this season, in addition to picking up EC gold. There are also three world records. The last one is 6.21 which is awesome.

Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge also recently set a world record. He was listed on 2.01.09 in Berlin in September.

Winners will be announced in December

The last five nominees are Soufiane El Bakkali from Morocco (3000 meters hurdles), Grant Holloway from America (110 meters hurdles), Noah Lyles from America (100 and 200 meters), Anderson Peters from Grenada (javelin) and Pedro Pichardo from Portuguese ( triple jump).

In the future, both track and field fans and officials of the International Athletics Federation can vote for their favourites. The results from the two rounds of voting will each count 50 percent in the selection of the five finalists.

The final winner will be announced in early December.

Jakob Ingebrigtsen is also one of three potential European athletes of the year this season. In his final games there he faced competition from Mondo Duplantis and Greek long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou.

Tentoglou made the longest indoor jump in over ten years when he became world champion in Belgrade with 8.55 earlier in the year.

The winner of the European award will be announced on October 22.

(© NTB)