2008 World Athletics Gala Logo (© IAAF.org)
CarloFollowing the poll of the IAAF Family and the votes of the Internet fans, the IAAF has selected the three male and the three female finalists who are still in the running to win the 2008 Performance of the Year award.
Finalists are: (in alphabetical order)
Men
Usain Bolt (JAM) 9.69/100m Beijing 16 August
A World record – set while easing off 15 metres from the finish line – to win the Olympic 100m final with the equal biggest ever winning margin
Usain Bolt (JAM) 19.30/200m Beijing 20 August
A World record to win the Olympic 200m final, an improvement of 2 hundredths of a second on Michael Johnson’s historical World record set 12 years ago at the Atlanta Olympic Games
Haile Gebrselassie (ETH) 2:03:59/Marathon Berlin 28 September
A World Marathon record and barrier breaking performance, the first ever sub 2:04 and an improvement over the previous standard by 27 seconds
Women
Tirunesh Dibaba (ETH) 14:11.15/5000m Oslo 6 June
A World record improved by over 5 seconds on the one-year-old mark of arch-rival and compatriot Meseret Defar
Yelena Isinbayeva (RUS) 5.05/Pole Vault Beijing 18 August
A World record to defend her Olympic Pole Vault title, the 24th World record of her career and fourth of the year
Barbora Spotakova (CZE) 72.28/Javelin Throw Stuttgart 13 September
A World record to win the World Athletics Final and an improvement over the previous standard by 58 centimetres
The other athletes who had been shortlisted for the Performance of the Year Award were in order of number of votes received (4th to 13th).
Men
Kenenisa Bekele ETH
Dayron Robles CUB
Jamaica 4x100m team JAM
Irving Saladino PAN
Samuel Wanjiru KEN
LaShawn Merritt USA
Abubaker Kaki SUD
Zersenay Tadese ERI
Bryan Clay USA
Angelo Taylor USA
Women
Pamela Jelimo KEN
Tia Hellebaut BEL
Veronica Campbell-Brown JAM
Gulnara Galkina-Samitova RUS Shelly-Ann Fraser JAM
Melaine Walker JAM
Françoise Mbango CMR
Susanna Kallur SWE
Lornah Kiplagat NED
Olga Kaniskina RUS
The winners of the 2008 Performance of the Year Awards will be announced live, on stage, during the 2008 World Athletics Gala, which will take place in Monaco, on 23 November 2008.
The IAAF Family and Public votes opened on Monday 10 November and closed on Sunday 16 November at midnight CET.
Weighed at 70% the IAAF Family vote consisted in a list of 1512 recipients including IAAF & IAF Council Members, IAAF Member Federations, IAAF Committee & Commission Members, IAAF Meeting Directors, IAAF Ambassadors, Leading Athletes, Athletes’ Representatives, IAAF Staff Members and selected members of the International Press.
As part of the Online Public Vote which weighed at 30% of the overall standings, the IAAF received a total of 34,349 votes.
