Nigerian World Champion Tobi Amusan has made the final shortlist in the Women’s Athlete of the Year at the 2022 World Athletics Awards, following the first round of voting.

Amusan and nine other female athletes were nominated in the preliminary round for the prestigious award in October this year, but the nominees have now been reduced to five finalists, World Athletics announced on Monday.

In the final stage of the voting, the 100m hurdles world record holder will lock horns with Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sydney McLaughlin of USA, Peru’s Kimberly Garcia and Yulimar Rojas of Venezuela for the honour.

The World Athletes of the Year will be announced on World Athletics’ social media platforms in early December, as part of the World Athletics Awards 2022.

Amusan has been in superb form on the track since the turn of the year, most notably at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, United States.

She broke the 100m hurdles with a World Record time of 12.12secs to become Nigeria’s first world champion at the World Athletics Championships.

A three-way voting process determined the finalists.

The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family casted their votes by email, while fans voted online via the World Athletics social media platforms. 

Fifty per cent of the votes were determined by the World Athletics Council, with 25 per cent for the World Athletics Family, while the public determined the remaining 25 per cent of the final result in the poll that ended on October 31.