Big three nominated for IAAF'stop award

Jamaica's triple Olympic gold medallist and world 100 metres and 200 metres champion Usain Bolt is among three Jamaicans nominated for the IAAF's World Athlete of the Year award.

The two other Jamaicans, both female, are Veronica Campbell-Brown, Olympic 200 metres gold medallist, and 400 metres hurdles champion Melaine Walker.

According to a report on the IAAF's website, three finalists for the Athlete of the Year (man and woman) will be selected based on online voting.

The final selection of the Athlete of the Year will be made by a jury of the International Athletic Foundation. The winners will be announced at the World Athletics Gala in Monaco on November 23.

Candidates

The candidates are:

Men - Kenenisa Bekele, Haile Gebrselassie (Ethiopia), Usain Bolt (Jamaica), Bryan Clay, LaShawn Merritt (US), Dayron Robles (Cuba), Irving Saladino (Panama), Andrey Silnov (Russia), Andreas Thorkildsen (Norway), Samuel Wanjiru (Kenya).

Women - Veronica Campbell-Brown, Melaine Walker (Jamaica), Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopia), Gulnara Galkina-Samitova, Yelena Isinbayeva (Russia), Pamela Jelimo (Kenya) Fran?oise Mbango (Cameroon), Barbora Spotakova (Czech Republic), Valerie Vili (New Zealand) and Blanka Vlasic (Croatia).