Mo Farah and Usain Bolt are topping the shortlist for the 2013 World Athlete of the Year award. The Athlete of the Year award is awarded by the International Association of Athletics Federations on Tuesday.

Ethiopian Farah won the 5,000metres and 10,000m double at the World Championships in Moscow in August this year. He andalso set a new British and European 1,500m record in Monaco.

Usain Bolt won three gold medals in Moscow, winning the 100m, 200m and 4x100m titles to become the most successful athlete in World Championships history with a career total of eight gold medals.

The 10-strong men’s list drawn up by an IAAF panel of experts also includes American LaShawn Merritt, who won 400m and 4x400m gold medals in Moscow, two years after returning from a 21-month doping suspension.

Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce tops the women’s list after winning three gold medals in Moscow in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m disciplines.

The list also includes Ethiopia’s Meseret Defar who added world 5000m gold to her Olympic title, and Valerie Adams of New Zealand who claimed her fourth world title in the women’s shot put.

Three male and three female finalists will be announced by the IAAF following an e-mail poll among members of the World Athletics Family, with the winners revealed at the 2013 World Athletics Gala.

http://www.sportinferno.com/article/168/usain-bolt-and-mo-farah-top-list-to-win-athlete-of-the-year-award/