For the first time ever, the IAAF is inviting the public to participate in the vote for the Athlete of the Year.

By going to the IAAF home page www.iaaf.org on Monday 13 September, you will be able to pick your choice of Athlete of the Year (Man and Woman) from the Top 15 in the IAAF World Rankings (Overall).

At 08:00 GMT, on Friday 17 September, the vote will close, and a shortlist of 5 will then be presented to a Panel of the International Athletic Foundation, who will make a final selection of Athlete of the Year after taking consideration of results achieved at the World Athletics Final (18-19 September).

The winner of the Athlete of the Year award will then be announced - live on stage -during the 2004 World Athletics Gala at the Grimaldi Forum, Monte-Carlo, on Sunday night.

To take part in the vote - go to www.iaaf.org on Monday 13 September!

Choose your performance of the year!

2004 has already been a vintage year for athletics so we invite you to select your Performance of the Year (Men and Women), after the last major event of the season - the World Athletics Final in Monaco.

The vote will open on Monday 13 September based on this selection compiled by our team of athletics experts....

At 8:00 am, on Friday 17 September, the vote will close, and a shortlist of 3 will then be presented to a Panel of the International Athletic Foundation who will make the final choice on Sunday 19 September, taking consideration of results achieved at the World Athletics Final.

Men

1. Stefano Baldini calmly mastering the conditions and his rivals to win the classic Marathon to Athens race at the Olympics

2. Kenenisa's Bekele's world record for 10,000m at Ostrava. Confirmation of a new king of distance running in succeeding his mentor Haile Gebrselassie, and following his World Cross-country doubles and world record for 5000m at Hengelo

3. Yuriy Bilonog taking the Shot Put Olympic title with his very last throw. This dramatic final was contested in the unique setting of ancient Olympia and attended by 15,000 + spectators

4. Hicham El Guerrouj winning the Olympic 1500m title because this sealed his position as the world's greatest 1500m runner, after his fall at Atlanta in 1996 and defeat in Sydney 2000

5. Justin Gatlin winning the closest and fastest 100m Olympic final in 9.85. With the build-up before the start of the race and the incredible finish this was one of the most thrilling sprint races of the year

6. Stefan Holm's Olympic win despite nearly going out at two earlier heights. He now has the longest winning streak in athletics and has gloriously overcome a height disadvantage; Athens runner-up Matt Hemingway is 19cm taller!

7. Robert Korzeniowski winning his fourth Olympic gold in Athens - it was his only 50km of the year and yet he mastered it from start to finish. He was never challenged and ran his third best performance ever despite the heat and humidity.

8. Saif Saaeed Shaheen demolishing the World 3000m Steeplechase record by 1.65 seconds at the Golden League meeting in Brussels just a week after the end of the Olympic Games, which he watched on television

9. Jeremy Wariner, at 20 years old, becoming the fastest man at 400m for four years when winning the Olympic 400m title in 44.00

10. Liu Xiang's Olympic 110m hurdles win, a true championship performance which represents the start of a new era in Asian athletics

Women

1. Elvan Abeylegesse's world 5000m record, now forgotten but a courageous run in which she did the hard work then hung on as the record appeared to be slipping away

2. Fani Halkia winning the Olympic 400m Hurdles gold medal in front of her home crowd after breaking the Olympic record in the semi finals

3. Xing Huina, at 20 years old, beating more favoured rivals to win the 10,000m title in Athens before declaring: "I dreamed of winning an Olympic gold but got here four years early ..."

4. Kelly Holmes winning the Olympic 800m with the expressions of delight and eventual realisation of her success coupled with her magisterial success in the 1500 metres

5. Yelena Isinbayeva's pole vaulting at the Olympics. First her outstanding response to extreme pressure, by clearing 4.80 on her last and only chance to defeat her great rival Svetlana Feofanova, going on to seal her win at 4.85 and to set another world record at 4.91

6. Benita Johnson stunning the world by overcoming the African favourites to claim Australia's first women's title at the World Cross Country Championships in Brussels

7. Tatyana Lebedeva's 15.36 to win the World Indoor title at triple jump following two previous world indoor records in her series

8. Osleidys Menendez's 71.53 Javelin throw to win the Olympic title, just one centimetre below the world record

9. Mizuki Noguchi overcoming her rivals, a tough course and difficult conditions, to cross the finish line in Athens' Marble stadium as the new Olympic Marathon champion

10. Yelena Slesarenko outclassing a top field to win the Olympic high jump title with 2.06 before making a respectable effort at a new world record of 2.10