NAIROBI, Nov. 12 (Xinhua) -- Kenyan Olympic and world champion Hellen Obiri has been axed from potential nominees for the world female athlete of the year award.

Obiri who failed in her bid to win two gold medals at the World championships will now focus her energies to reclaiming the World Indoor Championships title, which will be held in March in Nanjing, China.

However, Kenya still has high hopes of taking the award as world record holder and Chicago marathon champion Brigid Kosgei is among the final list of five nominees.

"With just 11 days to go until the World Athletics Awards 2019, the names of the five finalists for the Female World Athlete of the Year 2019 have been confirmed. The five athletes, who represent five countries from four Area associations, have illustrated excellence across nearly all athletics disciplines in 2019," said World Athletics in a statement on Tuesday.

Kosgei set a world record of 2:14:04 to win the Chicago Marathon, ending Britain's Paula Radcliffe's 16-year record of two hours and 15 minutes. She has already confirmed her intention to try and run the marathon in under two hours and 10 minutes.

"I'm willing to take the challenge, similar to what Eliud Kipchoge did in Vienna," said Kosgei. "I promise to deliver more and more and make Kenya proud."

Kosgei also won the London Marathon and ran a world-leading time of 1:05:28 for the half marathon and 1:04:28 on a downhill course in Newcastle during the Great North Run.

Kosgei will face strong challenge in the year award evaluation from Jamaica's Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won world 100m and 4x100m titles in world-leading times of 10.71 and 41.44 respectively in Doha last month. She also claimed the Pan-American 200m title and won seven of her 10 races at 100m in the season.

Dutch runner Sifan Hassan, who edged out Obiri and become the third woman after Vivian Cheruiyot and Tirunesh Dibaba to win two gold medals in one championship, will be the other runner to look out for. Hassan won world 1,500m and 10,000m titles in world-leading times of 3:51.95 and 30:17.62. She also claimed the Diamond League in 1,500m and 5,000m titles and broke the world mile record with 4:12.33 in Monaco.

Other two runners are Dalilah Muhammad (USA), who broke the world record with 52.20 at the US Championships and Yulimar Rojas (Venezuela), the winner of the world triple jump title with 15.37m.

"The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via our social media platforms. The Council's vote counted for 50 percent of the result, while the Athletics Family's votes and the public votes each counted for 25 percent of the final result. Voting for the Female World Athlete of the Year closed on 5 November," said World Athletics in a statement.

The male and female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live on stage at the World Athletics Awards 2019 in Monaco on November 23. Enditem

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