In the women's version, meanwhile, Bolt's Jamaican team-mate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, like him a triple world sprint champion this year, is favourite to win her first award.

If the 27-year-old Bolt wins again, it will be his fifth victory in the last six years, with the sequence being beaten only by Kenya's 800m world record holder David Rudisha in 2010.

The only previous male athlete to have won a hat-trick since the first awards were made in 1988 was Morocco's mile and 1500m world record holder Hicham El Guerrouj, who won in 2001, 2002 and 2003.

Usain Bolt can match the only previous winner of a hat-trick of World Athlete of the Year titles, Hicham El Guerrouj, pictured after his world 1500m record in Rome in 1998

Over the same period of time the women's event has been shared around, with successive awards for Yelena Isinbayeva - who has a total of three wins since 2004 - Sanya Richards, Blanka Vlasic, Sally Pearson and, last year, Allyson Felix.

Three male and three female finalists will be announced by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) following an email poll among members of the "World Athletics Family", with the winners due to be  revealed at the 2013 World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo on November 16.

Farah, 30, became only the second man in history to complete an Olympic and world "double-double" in the distance events in August.

The latest addition to the lists - 10 men and 10 women - was Kenya's Wilson Kipsang, who broke the marathon world record by 15 seconds in winning the Berlin title on Sunday (September 29).

The women's list also includes Ethiopia's Meseret Defar, who added world 5,000m gold to her Olympic title, and Valerie Adams of New Zealand, who claimed her fourth world title in the women's shot put.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is favourite to win the women's award after taking three sprint gold medals at this summer's Moscow World Championships

Men's shortlist: Mohammed Aman (Ethiopa), Usain Bolt (Jamaica), Bohdan Bondarenko (Ukraine), Ashton Eaton (USA), Mo Farah (GB), Robert Harting (Germany), Wilson Kipsang (Kenya), Aleksandr Menkov (Russia), LaShawn Merritt (USA), Teddy Tamgho (France).

Women's shortlist: Valerie Adams (New Zealand), Abeba Aregawi (Sweden), Meseret Defar (Ethiopa), Tirunesh Dibaba (Ethiopa), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica), Zuzana Hejnova (Czech Republic), Caterine Ibarguen (Colombia), Sandra Perkovic (Croatia), Brianna Rollins (USA), Svetlana Shkolina (Russia).

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November 2010: Rudisha and Vlasic crowned 2010 World Athletes of the Year