There were 22 of them, now there are only 10. The International World Games Federation (IWGA) has closed the first phase of vote for World Games Athlete of the YearThe ten candidates who received the most votes remain in the running. Indonesian climber Veddriq Leonardo (photo above), Olympic speed champion in Paris, made a strong impression by dominating the votes by a wide margin – 22.861 votes, against 12.533 for her runner-up, China's Xin Tong (wushu). Estonian Kristin Lätt (flying disc) completed the first round podium with 11.575 votes. The counters are reset to zero, which gives a chance to ten applicantsAlso in the running are the Italian Duccio Marsili (roller skating), the American Vanita Krouch (American football), her compatriots Allison Hoeft and Sydney Martin (cheerleading), the Brazilian Isabella Lucchin (fistball), the Peruvian Diego Elias (squash), the Finnish Veera Kauppi (floorball) as well as the Chinese gymnastics quartet formed by Xuefeng Ma, Jingwei Shi, Minghe Zhang and Junjie Shi. Voting is open until January 31. The athletes ranked in the top three will receive a trophy and a bonus.
