Athletes of the year

The shortlist for the 2012 IAAF male athlete of the year is out: on it are Bolt, Meritt (Aries) and Rudisha. Missing out is Mo Farah. All three athletes worthy contenders, though from a Brit perspective it would have been nice to see Mo on there, he's as worthy as the three IMO. Hope it goes to Rudisha, whose performance in the Olympics was IMO the most impressive of the Games. Chances are Bolt will run away with it though...

Thoughts?

Rushida by a mile. Or perhaps by 800m. What he did was phenomenal. To run from gun to tape and break the world record is simply incredible.

Yep, that run by Rushida was my moment of the games. Didn't have the glamour or hype of Bolt's efforts but still made the hair on the back of my neck stand up.

Going to agree with the consensus. In fact I thought it was the most amazing sporting moment of the year accross all sports.

I remember turning around to my brother before the race and saying "I hope he doesn't mess it up", then "nah, he'll just hit the front and stay there, what could go wrong?"

Didn't necessarily think he'd break the world record. Truly fantastic performance. Shame it'll be undoubtedly overshadowed by Bolt, but...

of course another athlete to miss out on the short list is Ashton Eaton. World record in the Decathlon and won the Olympics by a country mile.

I'm glad I've found others who appreciate how truly special the Rudisha run was anyway

I've got to go with Rudisha as well. He must have had alot of self belief to attack and Olympic final like he did and it paid off.

I would have gone for Mo over Meritt. 2 gold medals should trump his single victory.

I remember reading about Peter Rono in the Seoul Games 1500 race. Cram was the favourite. Prior to the race Cram was interviewed about his tactics. He said he hoped to be on the shoulder of the guy leading and sprintingg off the bend to win.

It didn't work out that way. Rono won and he was asked about his tactics. He said simply "The race was slow so I ran fast". I dont think he ever won another race again.

Reminds me of Rushida. Just get out there and run fast from gun to tape. A simple but effective tactic.

Bolt, Rudisha and Meritt is one hell of a trio and they all should be commended for their fantastic years, but I'd personally have swapped Meritt for Farah, too.

When even the likes of Bekelel and Gebreselassie can't do the 5,000 / 10,000 double at the Olympics, you know it's one hell of a feat. Merrit has moved the 100mH record to a time which I hadn't expected to see for a good few years yet, but his season peak came after the Olympics, whereas Farah produced his best on the biggest stage of all.

I'm nitpicking, though. Meritt has been brilliant and deserves all the praise coming his way.

As for who should win it, well it's got to be Rudisha for me. Kipketer's world record was one of the best in athletics; Rudisha has gone past it three times now, and almost certainly will do again. A performance like that in an Olympic final - just awesome.