Vote for the IAAF Athlete of the Year! by Walt Murphy, note by Larry Eder

So, who is it going to be for 2010? Let Walt Murphy be your guide as you pick your three favorite men and women athletes in the sport of track & field for 2010!

Walt Murphy’s News and Results Service (wmurphy25@aol.com)
(c)Copyright 2010-all rights reserved. May not be reprinted or retransmitted without permission

From the IAAF
(Cast your vote at this link: http://www.iaaf.org/athletes/athleteoftheyear2010/index.html)

Monte-Carlo – The IAAF is giving you the unique chance to help select the 2010 World Athlete of the Year.

With the vote now open, it takes just a few clicks to pick your THREE
finalists for the Athlete of the Year (Man and Woman) from the
candidates list selected by a panel of IAAF Experts.

With the help of your votes, which will be added to a poll of IAAF
Athletics Family members, a shortlist of 3 finalists will be presented
to a Special Jury of the International Athletic Foundation, who will
then make a final selection of the World Athlete of the Year and
announce the winners, live on stage, at the 2010 IAAF World Athletics
Gala in Monaco on 21 November.

Candidates for the World Athlete of the Year Awards
You have to pick THREE Men and THREE Women

Athletes listed in alphabetical order

Men

Christian Cantwell USA
Only two losses from 24 Shot Put contests. Winner of World Indoor and Diamond Race titles and World lead of 22.41m

Tyson Gay USA
Seven wins from eight sprint finals including the defeat of Usain Bolt
at 100m in Stockholm. Ran third leg for Continental Cup winning and
World leading 4x100m teams

Steven Hooker AUS
World Indoor, Continental Cup and Commonwealth Games titles at Pole Vault, plus World outdoor lead of 5.95m (and 6.01m indoors)

Bernard Lagat USA
World Indoor title at 3000m, Continental Cup winner and North American records at both 3000m & 5000m

Christophe LemaÃ®tre FRA
Winner of the Continental Cup, winner of three gold medals at the
European Championships, sprinting breakthrough of the year and faster
than Usain Bolt at 20 years of age!

David Oliver USA
Unbeaten in 15 finals at 110m Hurdles, including the Continental Cup and
six out of six in the Diamond League. Set the fourth and joint fifth
fastest times ever, 12.89 & 12.90

David Rudisha KEN
Two World records at 800m (1:41.09 & 1:41.01), plus wins at the
African Championships and Continental Cup, all part of an unbeaten
sequence of 11 finals and four preliminaries

Zersenay Tadese ERI
World record breaker at Half Marathon and 20km with marks of 58:23 &
55:21. Individual and team silvers at the World Half Marathon
Championships

Teddy Tamgho FRA
World Champion and World record holder at Triple Jump indoors (17.90). Third on all-time lists outdoors with 17.98m

Andreas Thorkildsen NOR
Twelve out of 14 wins at Javelin Throw including the European, the
Diamond Race and Continental Cup titles plus a World lead of 90.37m

***********************************

Women

Veronica Campbell Brown JAM
World Indoor champion at 60m. World leads at 100m (10.78) & 200m (21.98) and unbeaten at the longer distance

Milcah Chemos Cheywa KEN
Seven out of 11 wins at 3000m Steeplechase and second in the other four
races. Winner of the Diamond Race and Commonwealth Games titles and
World lead of 9:11.71

Meseret Defar ETH
World Indoor and Continental Cup titles at 3000m. World lead 14:24.79 at 5000m, set indoors

Jessica Ennis GBR
World Indoor and European champion at Combined Events with World leading marks at both Pentathlon (4937) and Heptathlon (6823)

Allyson Felix USA
Diamond Race titles at 200m and 400m, World Indoor relay gold and wins in 14 out of her 15 individual races

Fabiana Murer BRA
World Indoor and Diamond Race titles at Pole Vault. Set three South American records indoors and out

Nadezhda Ostapchuk BLR
World Indoor champion, European champion and Diamond Race winner at Shot Put, winning 12 times out of 13

Olga Rypakova KAZ
World Indoor champion at Triple Jump. Won at Continental Cup with World lead and Asian record 15.25m

Blanka Vlasic CRO
Eighteen out of 20 wins at High Jump including seven out of seven wins
in the Diamond League, the World Indoor and European Championships and
the Continental Cup where she tied the World lead of 2.05m

Anita Wlodarczyk POL
World record breaker at 78.30m and European bronze at Hammer Throw

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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