Bolt, Mo Farah, Semenya Nominated for Athlete of the Year Awards

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt – a nine-time Olympic gold medallist , Great Britain’s Mo Farah and South Africa’s Caster Semenya are among athletes nominated for IAAF’s Athlete of the Year Awards

Bolt broke Michael Johnson’s 17-year-old 400m world record to claim victory in Rio while Mo Farah, 33, secured a historic ‘double double’ by retaining both his 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic titles at Rio 2016.

Paula Radcliffe, in 2002, was the last British athlete to win one of the IAAF’s end-of-year awards.
Apart from Bolt, Farah faces competition from the like of and South Africa’s Wayde van Niekerk who set a new world record in the 400m at the Games in Brazil.

The winner of both the male and female athlete of the year awards will be announced at the IAAF awards dinner in Monaco in December.

The last Briton to win the men’s award was triple jumper Jonathan Edwards in 1995, the year in which he jumped 18.29m, which is still the world record.

The 25-year-old Semenya won gold in Rio to add to her silver medal from London 2012.
Her rivals include Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana, who broke the 10,000m world record by over 14 seconds in Rio, and Spain’s Ruth Beitia, who won Olympic high jump gold aged 37.