World Athletics cited the 35-year-old Kenyan's achievement of running 1 hour 59min 40.2sec in an assisted event in Vienna on October 12, and also his London Marathon win in a course record time of 2:02:37.

Kipchoge won the award for the first time last year after taking 78 seconds off the official world marathon record with his Berlin victory in 2:01:39 last September.

Also nominated are the United States' Sam Kendricks and Noah Lyles, Uganda's Joshua Cheptegei and Norway's Karsten Warholm.

Pole vaulter Kendricks cleared 6.06 metres, the best of the year, to win the US title before securing World Championships gold in Doha.

He also won 12 of his 17 outdoor competitions, including the Diamond League final.

Fellow American Lyles, 22, earned his first world titles, at 200m and 4x100m, after a season in which he has won Diamond League titles at 100m and 200m, and moved to fourth on the all-time 200m list with a time of 19.50 in Lausanne.

Cheptegei earned the world cross-country title in Danish city Aarhus and the Diamond League 5,000m title, before winning a compellingly competitive world 10,000m final in a world-leading 26:48.36.

Warholm retained his world 400m hurdles title at the end of a season in which he remained undefeated indoors and outdoors at all distances, including the Diamond League final in Zurich and the European Indoor Championships in Glasgow, and also clocked the second-fastest time recorded, 46.92.

"The five athletes, who represent four countries from three area associations, have illustrated excellence across nearly all athletics disciplines in 2019," World Athletics said. 

A three-way voting process determined the finalists.

The World Athletics Council and the World Athletics family cast their votes by email, while fans voted online via World Athletics' social media platforms. 

The Council's vote counted for 50 per cent of the result, while the family and public votes each counted for 25 per cent of the final result.

Voting for the Male World Athlete of the Year closed on November 4.

Kenya's Brigid Kosgei, who broke Paula Radcliffe's 16-year-old world marathon record in Chicago last month, is among 11 nominations for the Female World Athlete of the Year award.

A vote to determine the five finalists ended on November 5, although the list is yet to be released.

The Male and Female World Athletes of the Year will be announced live on stage at the 2019 World Athletics Awards.

The event is in Monaco on November 23.