World 1,500m champion Manangoi tops IAAF Male Athlete of the year online voting

Kenya's Elijah Motonei Manangoi celebrates winning the gold medal in the Men's 1500m final during the World Athletics Championships in London Sunday, Aug. 13, 2017. (AP Photo/David J. Phillip)

World 1,500m champion Elijah Manangoi tops the online poll for the 2017 IAAF Male Athlete of the Year as World 5000m Champion Hellen Obiri is placed third in the social media voting that concluded on Monday.

The three-way voting process will determine the finalists with IAAF Council and the IAAF Family casting their votes by email, while fans voted online via the IAAF’s social media platforms.

The IAAF Council’s vote count for 50 per cent of the result while the IAAF Family’s votes and the public votes each counts for 25 per cent of the final result. The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced at the IAAF Athletics Awards ceremony on November 24, in Monaco.

Manangoi gathered 96,300 votes with Qatari long-jumper, Mutaz Barshim polling 90,600 while South Africa poster boy and 400m world record holder Wayde van Niekerk managing 2,998 voters.

In the women contention, Ethiopian Almaz Ayana emerged favourite among the public online voters garnering 16,305 votes, Belgian’s Nafissatou Thiam getting 6,552 votes while Kenya’s Obiri amassing 6,454 votes.

 “It’s great feeling Kenyan and the rest of the world recognised my performance and voted for me. I say thank you,” said Manangoi. [Dennis Okeyo]