The IAAF finalists and some thoughts

The IAAF has published their list of finalists for title of World Athlete of the year 2018. Since I had published my own selection even before the initial, long, list of IAAF it make sense to make some comparisons. 

Let's start with the ladies list. The five finalists are

Dina Asher-Smith, Beatrice Chepkoech, Caterine Ibarguen, Shaunae Miller-Uibo and Nafissatou Thiam. For comparison my top-three list was Miller-Uibo, Chepkoech and Lasitskene. I find it somewhat bizarre that the latter did not make it to the finalists list but the IAAF choice of the top-five is quite reasonable. 

Given this short list, who has the greatest chance for the athlete of the year title.  Asher-Smith was nominated european athlete of the year, so, to my eyes, this diminishes her chances. Thiam is last year's winner and given the competition, I do not see her winning the title. This leaves us with Chepkoech, Ibarguen and Miller-Uibo. Much as I would have liked to see Ibargüen crowned, I do not see how she can compete against the other two. So it will be a race between Chepkoech and MIller-Uibo (and if you are following my blog you'll remember that my choice was Miller).

The men's list of finalists comprises

Christian Coleman, Armand Duplantis, Eliud Kipchoge, Kevin Mayer and Abderrahman Samba. I will not comment on Coleman (I am still not convinced of his value). A. Duplantis is a great talent and was crowned (together with J. Ingebrigtsen) European Rising Star and he may get the world rising star title as well. So this leaves us with Kipchoge, Mayer and Samba. Well, this is precisely my top own three. Mayer has already obtained the european athlete of the year title, so, most probably he will not be the winner of the world title. This leaves us with Kipchoge and Samba. Had Samba beaten the world record on 400 m hurdles he would have been the great favourite, but as the things stand I do not see how Kipchoge will miss the title. Well, we'll have to wait a little bit more (till December 4th) and we'll have the answer.

And since I am writing about the year's best athletes I must point out a great omission in my young talents list. Somehow the cuban triple jumper Jordan Diaz slipped out of my mind. With 17.41 m he established a U18 world record improving upon his 17.30 m from last year, obtained when he was just 16 years old. (Last year's record corresponded to a 2 m progression in a single year. Simply amazing). Diaz will probably obtain the rising star title and I felt that I had to make amends for my ommission.