Olympic and world champion javelin thrower Neeraj Chopra on Thursday was selected as one of the 11 nominees for the 2023 men’s World Athlete of the Year Award.

The 11 nominees were selected by an international panel of athletic experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of World Athletics. The polling has begun and the finalist will be decided after a three-way voting process and the winners will be announced on World Athletics social media platforms on December 11.

The nominations reflect some of the standout performances achieved at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, one-day meeting circuits, Label road races and other events around the world, the international governing body of the sport said, reports Business Standard.

Along with Neeraj Chopra, who recently defended his Asian Games title in Hangzhou, USA’s Ryan Crouser (shot put), Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis (pole vault), Morocco’s Soufiane El Bakkali (3000m steeplechase), Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen (1500m/mile/5000m), Kenya’s Kelvin Kiptum (marathon), Canada’s Pierce LePage (decathlon), USA’s Noah Lyles (100m/200m), Spain’s Alvaro Martin (race walk), Greece’s Miltiadis Tentoglou (long jump) and Norway’s Karsten Warholm (400m hurdles/400m) are the other nominees.

As per the press release, the World Athletics council and the World Athletics Family will cast their votes by email, while fans can cast their vote via the World Athletics social media platforms. The World Athletics Council vote share will count for 50% of the result while the World Athlete Family’s and the public votes will each count for 25 % for the result.

Individual photos of each nominee will be taken to social media platforms including Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube this week. A like on Instagram, Facebook and YouTube will be counted as a vote while retweet on X will count as one vote.

Voting will close at midnight of October 28. At the conclusion of the voting process, five women athletes and five men finalists will be announced by World Athletics on November 13-14.

Neeraj Chopra has been in sizzling form in season 2023. He saved his last best shot to grab the gold medal in Hangzhou Asian Games.