Donavan Brazier, Ryan Crouser and Noah Lyles of the United States, Kenya's Timothy Cheruiyot, Jacob Kiplimo of Uganda, Sweden's Daniel Stahl, Germany's Johannes Vetter and Karsten Warholm of Norway are also in contention for the prize.

The 10-athlete shortlist will be whittled down to five by a combination of votes from the World Athletics Council, members of the global governing body and athletics fans.

The five athletes to have made the final shortlist will be announced after the conclusion of voting on November 15.

The winner is set to be announced during the World Athletics Awards on December 5, which will take place virtually this year due to the coronavirus pandemic.

Duplantis raised the world pole vault record to 6.17 and then 6.18 metres earlier this year at indoor meetings in Toruń and Glasgow, before breaking the outdoor mark held for 26 years by Ukraine's Sergey Bubka with an attempt of 6.15m at a Diamond League meeting in Rome in September.

Cheptegei has also been in superb form in a coronavirus-impacted year, breaking world records in the 5,000m and 10,000m on the track and the 5 kilometres on the road.

The Ugandan star clocked 12min 35.36sec over 5,000m, before lowering the 10,000m mark to 26:11.00 and to 12:51 in the 5km road event.

Warholm, undefeated in nine 400m and 400m hurdles races this year, ran a world-leading 46.87sec in the 400m hurdles - the second fastest time ever recorded - at the Diamond League in Stockholm in August.

American Brazier produced world-leading times over 800m both indoors and outdoors this season and triumphed in all seven races over the distance, while Cheruiyot set the fastest 1,500m time of the year when he clocked 3:28.45 at the Monaco Diamond League.

Vetter's throw of 97.76m, the second farthest in history, and winning eight of his nine events in 2020 helped him onto the shortlist.

Stahl won 17 of his 19 discus competitions and threw a world-leading 71.37m, while American sprinter Lyles is unbeaten over five 200m races and recorded the fastest time of the year - 19.76 - in Monaco.

Kiplimo claimed the world half marathon title in a championship record of 58:49 in Poland last month, and has run 7:26.64 over 3,000m - the quickest in the world since 2007.

Crouser is unbeaten in 10 shot put competitions, with his 22.91m world-leading performance moving him to equal third on the world all-time list.