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Thompson-Herah nominated for prestigious World Athlete of the Year award

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Elaine Thompson Herah’s stunning season has seen her earn a nomination for this year’s prestigious Female Athlete of the Year award. The two-time Olympic sprint champion made history by becoming the first woman to defend her Olympic titles in two consecutive games.

The ‘sprint double’ has now secured Thompson Herah’s position as the quickest woman alive. World Athletics has decided to acknowledge a dominant season which saw her finish with the second-fastest time ever in 200m and 100m races. She clocked 21.53 seconds in the 200m race and 10.54 seconds in 100m. 

This is the Jamaican’s third nomination, making her the only Jamaican athlete to receive a nomination for this year’s Female or Male Athlete of the Year award. She will be competing against nine other women. 

These women include: Shaunae Miller-Uibo (Bahamas), Mariya Lasitskene (Neutral), Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela), Sifan Hassan (Netherlands), Jasmine Camacho-Quinn (Puerto Rico), Athing Mu (USA), Sydney McLaughlin (USA), Faith Kipyegon (Kenya) and Valarie Allman (USA).

The World Athletics Family and the World Athletics Council will vote for their preferred winners via email, while fans will be allowed to choose their favorite athletes using the World Athletics social media pages. The organization will post different graphics for every nominee on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook this week. A retweet on Twitter, or a like on Instagram and Facebook will be tallied as one vote.

The public votes and the World Athletics Family’s votes will be form 25% of the final result, while the vote assembled from The World Athletics Council will count for 50% of the total vote. 

World Athletics will announce a list composed of five men and five women when the voting process comes to an end. All voters are expected to cast their votes by midnight on Saturday 6 November.

The nominations are meant to reward athletes with the best performances in 2021, at events like one-day meeting circuits, Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, Diamond League and other international events.

The World Athlete of the Year award is a reward for world-class athletes who are involved in events within the sport of athletics. The games are managed by World Athletics (formerly known as IAAF), including racewalking, road running, cross country running as well as track and field. 

Other Jamaicans who have won this award include Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Merlene Ottey and Asafa Powell. 

The World Athletics Awards will announce the female and male World Athletes of the Year in December 2021.

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