World Marathon record holder Eliud Kipchoge made the cut to defend his IAAF Athlete of the Year Award set for Monaco in a fortnight.
As Kipchoge will be chasing his double, world 1,500m champion Timothy Cheruiyot was dropped from the final list.
Kipchoge on his part became the first human to ran a sub-two-hour marathon last month, clocking 1:59:40 in Vienna during the Ineos Challenge
Kipchoge also won the London Marathon for the fourth time early this year in a course record time of 2:02:37. Kipchoge has won 12 of the 13 marathons he has competed since switching to road races in 2013.
Kipchoge is pitted against Uganda’s World and Commonwealth Games c 10,000m champion Joshua Cheptegei, world 200m champion Noah Lyles world pole-vault champion Sam Kendricks (USA) and Norway’s world 400m champion Karsten Warholm.
Cheruiyot will miss on the award despite dominating his 1,500m speciality this year and winning the Diamond League trophy and the world title.