USAIN BOLT, THE fastest man on the planet, leads the nominees for IAAF World Athlete of the Year.
Bolt, who took his Olympic gold tally to six when he defended his 100m, 200m, and 4x100m relay titles in London this summer, is joined by Aries Merritt of the United States and Kenya’s David Rudisha.
But there is no place among the nominees for Great British hopeful Mo Farah, double gold winner in the 5,000m and 10,000m in front of his home crowd.
US track star Merritt followed up his Olympic 110m hurdle success by shaving seven-hundredths of a second off Dayron Robles’s four-year old world record, running 12.80 in Brussels in September.
Rudisha, already the poster boy of Kenyan middle-distance running at 23, was the only man to set an individual track world at the London Games. The 23-year-old powered to gold with a time 1:40.91 in the 800m final.
The winner will be announced later this month during a special awards ceremony as part of the IAAF Centenary Celebrations. The ceremony takes place in Barcelona on 24 November.
