Australian magazine Runner's Tribe has announced recently the sportsman of the year.

To contend for the men's title four athletes were left, including two walkers.

It was in fact always going to come down to a battle between two star walkers: Jared Tallent and Dane Bird-Smith (both medal winners in Rio) and Ryan Gregson (who had a breakthrough year in 2016). The only other male athlete you came close to this trio was Fabrice Lapierre the Diamond League winner for the men’s long jump. 

The final public vote, was won by Bird-Smith (316 votes), followed by Gregson (263) and Tallent (100). 

So in the end (adding all the votes together) the top-3 male athletes for 2016 were:

1. Dane Bird-Smith – 17 points
2. Ryan Gregson – 14 points
3. Jared Tallent – 13 points

The experts selections were as follows:

• Len Johnson (former reporter for The Age newspaper and regular contributor for RT) – Tallent (3), Lapierre (2), Bird-Smith (1)
• Steve Moneghetti (World Championships Bronze medalist and Australian distance running star) – Tallent (3), Bird-Smith (2), Gregson (1)
• Benita Willis (World Cross Country Champion and AR holder over 2000m, 3000m, 5000m, 10000m and Marathon) – Bird-Smith (3), Gregson (2), Lapierre (1)
• Matt Beckenham (2000 Olympian and coach of Olympians Melissa Breen and Lauren Wells) – Tallent (3), Bird-Smith (2), Lapierre (1)
• Nic Bideau (Legend distance coach to the likes of Wellings, LaCaze, Gregson, Robinson and Mathews just to name a few) – Gregson (3), Lapierre (2), Robinson (1)
• Dave ‘Robbo’ Robertson (Sports commentator, event promoter and all round lover of all things athletics) – Gregson (3), Lapierre (2), Robinson (1)
• Chris Wainwright (sub editor for RT and RT StatsCentral and lover of all things athletics) – Bird-Smith (3), Tallent (2), Gregson (1)

So only two experts gave 3 votes to Bird-Smith, but in the end (with some good public support) he just managed to end the voting in front. 

We take a look at his fantastic year in review below:

- Olympic bronze medalist in the men’s 20km race walk – in a PB of 1:19:37

- On the 5th March produced a new Australian record of 18:38.97 in the 5000m walk

- Finished 4th at the World Team Cup in Rome, Italy – with a time of 1:19.38 (which was a PB at the time)

- Winner of the overall title in Suzhou, China (Taihu International Challenge) in September (which included 2x10km, 1×10.5km, 1x20km races over a 4 day competition)

- Winner of the National title over 10000m (38:44.61, which was also a PB).