Monte Carlo - Jamaican supersprinter Usain Bolt and Russian pole vault queen Yelena Isinbayeva are among the six finalists for the World Athlete of the Year award.

The governing body IAAF said in a statement on Monday that the Bolt, who won 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold at the Beijing Olympics in world record times, double long-distance gold medallist Kenenisa Bekele of Ethiopia and 110m hurdles Olympic champion Dayron Robles of Cuba were the final three men.

Isinbayeva won pole vault gold with a world record. She is joined by 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic champion Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia and Kenyan 800m sensation Pamela Jelimo, who also ran to gold in Beijing in August, in the women's list.

The winners will be announced at the World Athletics Gala on November 23 in Monte Carlo.

The vote conducted among the IAAF family (officials from the body and its member federations, leading athletes and media) and the public closed on Sunday.

The 1,512 entries from the IAAF weigh 70 per cent in the vote, the public's 493,353 votes via the IAAF website count 30 per cent. (dpa)