No diamond, but a rare gem nonetheless: By Len Johnson

Sally Pearson’s brilliant 2011 was recognised when she was acclaimed the IAAF’s female athlete of the year in Monaco last weekend.

Indeed, the only previous one I can find is Ron Clarke, who is, by glorious coincidence, Sally’s lord mayor up on the Gold Coast. What are the odds of that, do you reckon.

Clarke was named male athlete of the year by Track & Field News magazine in 1965, the first of his great international years. Since then, there has been nothing.

Track &Field News started nominating a men’s athlete of the year in 1959 and a women’s AOY in 1974. The US magazine pretty much had the athlete of the year thing to itself until the IAAF set up its own awards in 1988.

The careers of great Australian female athletes Marjorie Jackson, Shirley Strickland and Betty Cuthbert fell outside the scope of either award. The best Catherine Freeman did was second in 2000. Sally Pearson is therefore in rare, and exalted, company.

The award recognises an outstanding year. Pearson was metres ahead of her rivals at the world championships in Daegu, when it mattered most. She was undefeated in the hurdles but for a fall in the Diamond League meeting in Brussels – so no hurdles rival beat Pearson in a race she finished.

Quality of performance? Pearson’s technical mastery of her event in Daegu was breathtaking. Her winning time of 12.28 was fastest for almost 20 years and made her the fourth-fastest performer of all-time. She approached a once-unapproachable world record (12.21).

Yet some have questioned Pearson’s award, which she won from Kenya’s Vivian Cheruiyot and New Zealand’s Valerie Adams. There have also been mumblings about the men’s award, which went to Usain Bolt ahead of Yohan Blake and last year’s winner David Rudisha.

Cheruiyot had an outstanding year. She won the distance double in Daegu and the world cross-country title. She was undefeated on the track, and her 14:20.87 for 5000 metres in Stockholm made her the third-fastest ever behind Ethiopian duo Tirunesh Dibaba (14:11.15) and Meseret Defar (14:12.88).

Adams went undefeated in 2011 and her gold medal winning throw in Daegu was the longest in the world in 11 years.

Each of the contenders would have been a break-through winner. Australia has never provided a female AOY before, nor has Kenya, nor has New Zealand.

You can argue these things up hill and down dale (and no doubt the judges did). Cheruiyot beat Defar in the Daegu 5000 and again in Brussels. She beat defending champion Linet Masai to win the world 10,000.

On the other hand, it’s hardly the fault of Pearson or Adams that they do not have like events in which they can double.

In reality, there was an argument for each of the three female finalists as number one. What’s less clear, however, is the manner in which the IAAF makes its choice, so, let’s explain.

First, a panel of eight experts selects 10 finalists. Then, an e-mail vote is conducted to select three finalists. Those eligible to vote are IAAF and IAF (International Athletics Foundation) Council Members; IAAF member federations; IAAF committee & commission members; IAAF meeting directors; IAAF ambassadors; athletes’ representatives (i.e. agents); top athletes; members of the international press; IAAF staff members.

It is a pretty diverse group, with a high degree of subjectivity, you would think. In recent years, too, the IAAF has allowed a public vote on the three finalists.

Finally, the IAAF Council selects the winner.

Track & Field News takes a more rigorous approach, compiling the votes of 30 experts on a 10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis. 

Interestingly, though, results for the two polls show a surprising degree of correlation agreeing on 17 out of 20 winners from 2001 to 2010 (T&FN is yet to announce its 2011 AOYs). Only in 2003, when the IAAF went for Hicham El Guerrouj and Hestrie Cloete and the magazine for Felix Sanchez and Maria Mutola, and in 2008, when the IAAF had Yelena Isinbayeva as top woman and T&FN went for Tirunesh Dibaba, has there been disagreement.

The men’s situation this year was even less clear than the women’s. The IAAF opted for Bolt who perhaps could have been marked down more harshly for his false start loss in the Daegu final. But he came back to win the 200 and set the fastest time in the world for the 100 before season’s end.

Blake was great in Daegu, but he lost at the Jamaican champs to Asafa Powell and did not beat Bolt when he ran the world’s second-fastest 200 in Brussels.

Rudisha lost only his final race of the season, won his first world championships, and had the year’s fastest time in the 800. He had the strongest case for AOY in my view, but it was not overwhelming.

As ever, lists promote argument and discussion, which can only be good for the sport. Let’s see what the T&FN ranking bring.

In the meantime, congratulations to Sally Pearson – a rare and worthy winner indeed.