SA’s world-beaters’ fortunes in hands of fans
FANS can help Wayde van Niekerk beat the planet’s other top track and field stars including Usain Bolt and Mo Farah by voting for him to become the first South African man to win the IAAF’s World Athlete award.
The sport’s world governing body yesterday named Van Niekerk and South Africa’s other Olympic champion, Caster Semenya, among the men’s and women’s nominees.
High-jumper Hestrie Cloete is the country’s only recipient to date, in 2003.
Bolt, who pushed his career tally of Olympic medals to nine at the Rio Games, is a five-time winner of the award.
American decathlete Ashton Eaton, World Athlete for 2015, Farah and Kenyan David Rudisha retained their Olympic crowns in Brazil.
Van Niekerk set the only men’s world record of the Rio showpiece, breaking Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old 400m mark as he clinched the country’s first medal in this event since 1960, and the first gold since 1920. Johnson of the US won the award in 1999. Semenya became the first black South African woman to win an Olympic gold when she stormed to victory in the 800m. She finished top of the Diamond League race. Semenya is up against Ethiopia’s 10 000m queen Almaz Ayana, Kenya’s 5 000m star Vivian Cheruiyot and American world-record hurdler Kendra Harrison.
The award-winners will be decided by vote, with the fans’ online poll counting 25%.
The IAAF council votes will count 50% and IAAF federation members and committee members make up the other quarter.
Voting ends on November 1 and the awards function in Monaco is set for December 2.
Apart from Bolt, seven other people have won this award more than once since it started in 1988.
Moroccan middle-distance king Hicham El Guerrouj and Russian polevaulter Yelena Isinbayeva won three times apiece, as did disgraced US athlete Marion Jones, whose final award in 2000 was rescinded.
Two-time winners are Carl Lewis, Kenenisa Bekele and Sanya Richards. 2016 nominees: Men: Usain Bolt (Jamaica), Thiago Braz da Silva (Brazil), Ashton Eaton (US), Mo Farah (Britain), Eliud Kipchoge (Kenya), Conselsus Kipruto (Kenya), Omar McLeod (Jamaica), David Rudisha (Kenya), Christian Taylor (US), Wayde van Niekerk (SA)
Women: Almaz Ayana (Ethiopia), Ruth Beitia (Spain), Vivian Cheruiyot (Kenya), Kendra Harrison (US), Caterine Ibarguen (Colombia), Ruth Jebet (Bahrain), Sandra Perkovic (Croatia), Caster Semenya (SA), Elaine Thompson (Jamaica), Anita Wlodarczyk (Poland). Johnson,