Jamaican Bolt retained his Olympic 100m, 200m and 4x100m relay titles, while Rudisha of Kenya set a world best in winning the 800m. 

 

American Merritt won the 110m hurdles² and later smashed the world record. 

 

Britain's double Olympic champion Mo Farah has missed out on the three-man shortlist despite winning the 5,000m and 10,000m gold medals at London 2012.

 

Farah joined distance running greats such as Kenenisa Bekele, Miruts Yifter, Lasse Viren, Vladimir Kuts, Emil Zatopek and Hannes Kolehmainen in completing the 5,000m and 10,000m Olympic double. 

 

However, his achievements were not regarded highly enough by the International Association of Athletics³ Federations⁴ to make the final shortlist. 

 

Bolt, 26, declared himself the "greatest athlete" to have lived after becoming the first man to retain the sprint⁵（冲刺，短跑） titles he won four years ago in Beijing. 

 

Rudisha lowered his own mark over two laps to one minute, 40.91 seconds as the 23-year-old became the first man to break a world record on the track at London 2012. 

 

Merritt, 27, won the final Diamond League meeting of the season in Brussels in 12.80 seconds, shaving seven-hundredths of a second off Dayron Robles' previous best. 

 

The winner will be announced during the IAAF's Centenary Celebrations in Barcelona on 24 November.

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