Source: IAAF

The International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) have announced the athletes shortlisted to pick up the 2007 World Athlete of the Year.

The male contest is between American sprint-sensation Tyson Gay, new marathon world record holder Haile Gebrselassie and Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang.

Ethiopian 5000m world champion Meseret Defar, Swedish heptathlete Carolina Kluft and Croatian high-jumper Blanka Vlasic, who won 18 of the 19 events she entered this year, will compete for the women’s prize.

The winners of the 2007 World Athlete of the Year Awards will be announced live, on stage, during the 2007 World Athletics Gala, which will take place in Monaco, on November 25.

America’s Sanya Richards and Asafa Powell of Jamaica took the 2006 awards.