Russian high jumper Maria Lasitskene has been nominated for the best female track and field athlete of the year, a press service of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) announced on Monday.

"This week marks the opening of the voting process for the 2018 World Athletes of the Year ahead of the IAAF Athletics Awards 2018 in Monaco on Tuesday 4 December," IAAF said in its statement. "The IAAF is pleased to confirm a list of 10 nominees for Female World Athlete of the Year who were selected by an international panel of athletics experts, comprising representatives from all six continental areas of the IAAF.

The statement lists Lasitskene as the Authorized Neutral Athlete (ANA), who is the "Winner of 25 out of 26 contests at high jump, including the World Indoor Championships, European Championships, Diamond League final and Continental Cup," as well as the "World leads both indoors and out."

The other nominees on the list for the 2018 best female athlete are: Dina Asher-Smith (Great Britain; sprint running), Beatrice Chepkoech (Kenya; 3,000-meter steeplechase), Sifan Hassan (the Netherlands; 1,500m, 3,000m, 5,000m running, half-marathon), Caterine Ibarguen (Colombia; long jump, triple jump), Shaunae Miller-Uibo (the Bahams; 200m, 400m running), Sandra Perkovic (Croatia; discuss throw), Caster Semenya (the Republic of South Africa; 800m, 1,500m running), Nafissatou Thiam (Belgium; high jump, heptathlon) and Anita Wlodarczyk (Poland; hammer throw).

Competing in the summer of 2017 under a neutral flag, Lasitskene won the IAAF World Championship in London, becoming the two-time world champion. Last season Lasitskene won every tournament she took part in, including the final of the IAAF Diamond League in Brussels.

In all, the 25-year-old athlete from Russia is the two-time world champion, the two-time indoor world champion, the silver winner of the 2014 European Championships, the winner of the 2017 and 2018 IAAF Diamond League tournaments and holds the record of high jump victories of the Diamond League competitions.

Decision of IAAF for Russia’s ANA status

In 2015, the WADA (World Anti-Doping Agency) Independent Commission carried out an investigation into the activities of the All-Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF), the Moscow anti-doping laboratory, the RUSADA (Russian Anti-Doping Agency) and the Russian Sports Ministry. The commission accused certain athletes and sports officials of doping abuse and involvement in other activities related to violations of international regulations on performance enhancing substances.

The work of the Moscow anti-doping laboratory and RUSADA was eventually suspended. The IAAF in turn decided to suspend ARAF’s membership in the global governing body of athletics and put forward a host of criteria, which the Russian ruling body of track and field sports was obliged to implement in order to restore its membership in the global federation.

The IAAF, however, permitted clean athletes from Russia to participate in the international tournaments under the neutral status until the membership of the ARAF was reinstated.

Russia’s track and field athletes participated in the 2018 European Championships under a neutral flag as the ARAF membership remained being suspended with the IAAF. The country’s track and fielder athletes won one gold, three silver and two bronze medals at the 2018 European Championships, but they were not included in the overall medals standings due to their neutral status.