Qatar’s high jump world champion Mutaz Barshim is locked in a three-way battle with British distance running great Mo Farah and South African 400m and 200m ace Wayde Van Niekerk for this year’s IAAF Athlete of the Year Award.
One of this trio will succeed retired Jamaican sprint legend Usain Bolt, the current holder of the accolade, when the winner is announced at a ceremony in Monaco on November 24.
The three were shortlisted for the top prize from an initial list of 10 athletes announced a month ago by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF).
If Barshim wins the award, it will cap a dream year for the world high jump champion who also won the ANOC Best Athlete in Asia award last week in Prague.
Barshim was unbeaten last season, sweeping all Diamond League competitions before being crowned world champion in London, where he won the global high jump title with a leap of 2.35 metres.
The 26-year-old, whose 2.43m best is the second-highest in history after Cuban Javier Sotomayor’s 2.45 set almost a quarter of a century ago, has won silver and bronze at the last two Olympics and silver in the 2013 World Championships.
Farah, who was knighted this year, is the most successful British track athlete in modern Olympic Games history. He is the 2012 and 2016 Olympic gold medallist in both the 5,000m and 10,000m, and is the second athlete in modern Olympic Games history, after Lasse Vir.
