PARIS (AFP) — US triple world champion Allyson Felix failed in her bid to become a contender for the IAAF athlete of the year title as a result of lack of interest from the American public and media.
The award for both men and women will be announced on Sunday in Monaco and is worth 100,000 dollars (70,000 euros) to each respective winner.
"The public vote on internet counts for 30percent of the final mark. But the Americans were completely uninterested in contrast to the Chinese who voted for Lui Xiang and the Croats who went into action for Blanka Vlasic," the IAAF director of communication Nick Davies told AFP.
The multi-talented Felix not only won the gold medal over 200m at the recent world championships in Osaka by a record margin but she also pulled off the rare feat of helping the US relay team to further world crowns in the 4x100m and 4x400m races.
The 22-year-old from California is a world class runner over 100m, 200m and 400m and consoled herself by picking up the Jesse Owen trophy from the US athletics federation (USATF), while joint triple world champion Tyson Gay took the men's plaudit.
Gay is also in the running for the men's IAAF award alongside Ethiopia's legendary long distance runner Haile Gebrselassie and Xiang who showed nerves of steel to win the 110m hurdles crown in Japan.
Felix meanwhile was left in the cold as Vlasic, who won her first world gold medal with a flamboyant performance in the high jump, Sweden's peerless heptathlete Carolina Kluft and Ethiopia's 5000m runner Meseret Defar were named on the short-list of three.
Some onlookers believe Felix was a victim of growing resentment from the American public and press towards the sport in the wake of the scandal surrounding Marion Jones who admitted doping while racing to five medals at the 2000 Olympics in Sydney.
Jones was suspended on Friday for two years by the IAAF in a decision that also recommended she return all five of her Olympic medals and be stripped of any prize money won between September 1, 2000 and October 8, 2007.
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