Just over 48 hours after his historic feat of running a marathon under two hours in Austria, the 34-year-old will get a rare chance of defending his IAAF World Athlete of the Year Award after after being named among 11 male runners.
Kipchoge became the second Kenyan to win the top award since David Rudisha's record breaking feat in 2012 when he was feted last year breaking the world record in 2018 Berlin Marathon.
If he is crowned in Monaco in November this year, Kipchoge will join an exclusive list of multiple winners of the award such as Jamaican sprint hero Usain Bolt (six), Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj (three), Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele (two) as well as Americans Carl Lewis and Michael Johnson who have two apiece.
The marathoner, who clocked 1:59:40 in Vienna, is considered hot favourite for the award.
Kipchoge also won the 2019 London Marathon in April when he set a new course record of 2:02:37.
But he is not the only Kenyan on the provisional list, with IAAF also selecting Timothy Cheruiyot, the best athlete in the mile this year.
Cheruiyot crowned his season with a first gold medal at the Doha Worlds early in October.
Cheruiyot won 10 of his 11 outdoor races across all distances this year, besides defending his IAAF Diamond League Trophy before clocking 3:29.26 for gold in Doha to end three years of agony.
