Neeraj Chopra, who won the World Championships and Asian Games Gold medals, has made it to the five-man shortlist for the World Athlete of the Year award in 2023.
Neeraj Chopra is battling for the year-end honour along with 100m and 200m world champion Noah Lyles, pole vault star Mondo Duplantis, shot putter Ryan Crouser and Kenyan marathon star Kelvin Kiptum. These sportspersons have been shortlisted from the 11 athletes chosen for the award by the governing body of track and field events in the world. The Tokyo Olympic gold medalist also finished second in the Diamond League final after having two Diamond League meetings in Doha and Lausanne.
Steeplechaser Soufiane El Bakkali, middle-distance runner, Jakob Ingebrigtsen, decathlon star, Pierce LePage, race walker Alvaro Martin, long jumper Miltiadis Tentoglou and Karsten Warholm, 400m hurdles champion, could not reach the finals.
A three-way voting process determined the finalists for the World Athlete of the Year award. The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans logged their decisions online through the World Athletics social media platforms, where a record 2 million votes were registered. The voting closed on October 20.
The winner of the men and women’s World Athlete of the Year will be announced on December 11.
