Vote for Vivian, Makau, Rudisha

Kenyans have a chance to vote for their favourite athletes who are in the hunt for the coveted 2011 IAAF World Athlete of the Year award.

However, they will be spoilt for choice in the men’s category where they have two world record holders - David Rudisha (800 metres) and Patrick Makau (marathon) - to select for the top award.

The women’s category will be more easy, since the world 5,000 metres, 10,000m and cross country champion, Vivian Cheruiyot, is the only Kenyan nominee, and a red-hot favourite at that.

Last year, Rudisha, aged 21, become the youngest ever athlete and first Kenyan to win the IAAF World Athlete of the Year award.

Ten male and a similar number of female athletes have been selected by a panel of International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) for the prestigious awards.

Just like the previous year, Kenyans will join the world athletics family in the online voting that was to start yesterday before and which will close on Sunday, October 23.

At the conclusion of the voting process, three male and three female finalists will be selected and announced by the IAAF.

The Council of the International Athletic Foundation (IAF) will then select the male and female winners from the finalists with the announcement taking place live, on stage, during the 2011 World Athletics Gala, on November 12 in Monaco.

This year, Rudisha won the world title in Daegu, South Korea, and remained unbeaten in the race for the Diamond League jackpot.

However, his winning streak came to an end with a rare loss to Mohammed Aman of Ethiopia at the Milan Notturna meet on September 18.

Rudisha had a week earlier clocked 1:41.33 in Rieti for the best time this year, slightly off his world mark.

The 28-year-old Vivian Cheruiyot followed up last year’s Commonwealth Games and Africa titles by retaining her world 5,000m title before adding the World 10,000m crown to her collection.

That was after clinching the world cross country title in Spain, earlier this year. Makau, 26, retained his Berlin Marathon title just over a week ago with a new world record time of 2:03:38.

“I’m appealing to Kenyans to vote in large numbers as this will help us, just like last year when many Kenyans voted for Rudisha who won the title,” Makau said.

“We look for the support and encouragement like that which we saw in the local media and social networks when I won in Berlin and when Rudisha also broke the world record, and also during the World Championships in Daegu.”