Armand Duplantis broke Sergey Bubka's 26-year outdoor pole vault world record ©Getty Images

Sweden's Armand Duplantis - who broke Sergey Bubka's 26-year outdoor pole vault world record - has been named as one of the five finalists for the Male World Athlete of the Year 2020 award.

Ugandan long-distance runner Joshua Cheptegei, American shot putter Ryan Crouser, German javelin star Johannes Vetter and Norwegian hurdler Karsten Warholm are also in the running for this year's prestigious prize.

Duplantis made history at September's Diamond League meeting in Rome when he cleared 6.15 metres.

It bettered Bubka's long-held record of 6.14m which the Ukrainian set in July 1994.

This year has also seen Duplantis break the indoor pole vault record with 6.17m and then 6.18m in successive weekends in February.

Cheptegei broke world records at 5,000m with 12min 35.36sec, 10,000m with 26:11.00 and 5km on the roads with 12:51.

The 24-year-old also finished fourth at the World Athletics Half Marathon Championships in Gdynia in Poland on his debut over the distance.

Armand Duplantis, Karsten Warholm, Ryan Crouser, Joshua Cheptegei and Johannes Vetter will battle it out for the Male World Athlete of the Year 2020 award ©Getty Images
Armand Duplantis, Karsten Warholm, Ryan Crouser, Joshua Cheptegei and Johannes Vetter will battle it out for the Male World Athlete of the Year 2020 award ©Getty Images

Crouser is undefeated in 10 shot put events with his world-leading performance of 22.91m at an American Track League Summer Series meeting in July moving him to equal third on the world all-time list.

Vetter won all but one of his nine competitions this year and produced the second best javelin throw of all time at the Continental Tour Gold level athletics event in September.

The German smashed his own national record with 97.76m, which is 72cm short of the world record set by three-time Olympic champion Jan Železný in 1996.

Warholm ran a world-leading 46.87 in the 400m hurdles - the second fastest in history behind Kevin Young's world record of 46.78 - at a Diamond League meeting in August.

The Norwegian is also undefeated in nine 400m and 400m hurdles races and set a world best of 33.78 in the 300m hurdles at the Impossible Games in June.

A three-way voting process determined the finalists with the World Athletics Council and the World Athletics Family casting their votes by email and fans selecting their favourite on social media.

The awards ceremony is scheduled to be held on December 5 in a virtual capacity for the first time, due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Sprint stars Sanya Richards-Ross, who won gold in the 400m at London 2012, and Ato Boldon, a four-time Olympic medallist, have been chosen to host the event.