The Tribune

By BRENT STUBBS

Senior Sports Reporter

bstubbs@tribunemedia.net

SHAUNAE Miller-Uibo has secured one of the final five spots for the International Amateur Athletic Federation's Female Athlete of the Year.

The IAAF released the finalists from a list of 10 on Monday as they gear up for the live on stage announcement that will take place at the IAAF Athletics Awards 2018 on 4 December in Monaco.

Miller-Uibo, 24, joins four other athletes from five countries from four area associations. The others are Great Britain's sprinter Dina Asher-Smith; Kenya's steeplechase runner Beatrice Chepkoech; Colombia's triple/long jumper Caterine Ibarguen and Belgium's heptathlete Nafissatou Thiam.

The voting, by a three-way voting process, determined the finalists up to November 12.

The IAAF Council and the IAAF Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via the IAAF's social media platforms. The IAAF Council’s vote counted for 50% of the result, while the IAAF Family’s votes and the public votes each counted for 25% of the final result.

During the course of the season, Miller-Uibo went undefeated in 15 races, including 13 finals and two preliminaries, as she competed in the both the 200 and 400 metres in what she described as a "fun off year."

She closed out her year by winning the gold medal in the 200m and as a member of the 4x100m for the Americas team at the IAAF Continental Cup. That came after she earned the IAAF diamond League title at the final in the 200m.

Her year began with her triumph in the 200m at the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast, Australia.

Between those events, Miller-Uibo finally broke Tonique Williams' national 400m record by running the world's fastest time since 2006.

To add to her achievements this year, Miller-Uibo also went on to post the world's best times indoor in the 300m and the 150m straight.

The highlighted performances of the other finalists are as follows:

• Asher-Smith was the European champion and world leader at 100m, 200m and 4x100m; second over 100m in the IAAF Diamond League final and IAAF Continental Cup and was the Commonwealth Games 4x100m gold and 200m bronze medalist.

• Chepkoech broke the world steeplechase record by eight seconds, backed up by the third-quickest mark of all time; won seven out of eight steeplechase finals including the IAAF Continental Cup, African Championships and IAAF Diamond League final and was the Commonwealth Games silver medalist at 1500m.

• Ibarguen was the IAAF Continental Cup winner, IAAF Diamond League champion and Central American and Caribbean champion at both long jump and triple jump and was the world lead and unbeaten in eight finals at triple jump.

• Thiam was the European champion, world lead and unbeaten at heptathlon and the world number three ranked competitor in the high jump.

On Tuesday, the IAAF released the list of finalists for the Male Athlete of the Year. They are as follows:

Sweden's pole vaulter Armand Duplantis; Kenya's marathon runner Ellud Kipchoge; France's decathlete Kevin Mayer and Qatar's quarter-miler Abderrahman Samba.