The eyes of the athletics world will be on Barcelona this Saturday for the annual World Athlete of the Year Awards.
The awards ceremony will be part of the IAAF centenary celebrations, with Usain Bolt, David Rudisha and Aries Merritt nominated for the men's award, while Sally Pearson, Allyson Felix and Jessica Ennis make up the women's shortlist.
Dual-Olympic gold medallist Bolt is the obvious favourite to take out the men's award after winning it last year, and the Jamaican is eager to go even faster in the upcoming season after enjoying a memorable year which saw him become the first man to defend both the 100m and 200m Olympic titles in London.
When asked if he can break his own world records in 2013, Bolt said: "Yeah definitely I think, I don't want to say I can do it this season, but one of the main focuses will be to try and go as fast as I possibly can this season because I think I have done everything I want to do in the sport and it is just to really top off to see what else I can do."
Olympic 800m gold medallist Rudisha said he was excited to be at the awards ceremony after enjoying a stellar season of his own.
"I am very much delighted to be here this time again, to be nominated, to be top three," he said.
"I think it is a great achievement and because of what I did in the Olympics, running a special race, the 800 and breaking the world record without a pacemaker, it was something fantastic."
Australian Pearson, who is hoping to defend her crown as women's World Athlete of the Year, confirmed she is aiming to retain her 100m hurdles Olympic title in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 after claiming victory in London this year.
But the 26-year-old is refusing to get too far ahead of herself as she prepares for another intense four years of competition.
"(I'm) definitely trying for Rio in 2016 (but) it's still such a long way away," she said.
"We have only just got over the London Olympics and we have the World Championships next year and I have the Commonwealth Games in 2014 along with another World Indoor Championships and then the World Championships again in 2015 ... and that's all before the Rio Olympics so it going to be a big four years."