Below are FloTrack's top men's races of the year:

5. Men’s 3,000m Steeplechase at Worlds

Conseslus Kipruto had to fight through injury-- with a less than stellar aqua jogging setup-- even to make it to Doha, but once the Olympic and world steeple champion did, he came alive to win his third straight 3,000m steeplechase global title by a minuscule .01 seconds.

?? @KipConseslus wins back-to-back 3000m steeplechase ?

His winning margin of 0.01 is the closest in #WorldAthleticsChamps steeplechase history.

?: https://t.co/k6kbm9S5PX pic.twitter.com/CdrVY16JiE

— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) October 4, 2019

The naked eye couldn’t differentiate between Kipruto and Ethiopian Lamecha Girma across the finish line, but a slight lean by the experienced Kenyan against the teenager Girma gave Kipruto the edge. With it, a 32-year winning streak of Kenyan-born men in the steeplechase at global championships lived on.

4. Donavan Brazier’s Diamond League Comeback

While his 1:42.34 world title and American record was a masterclass of fitness and tactics on the sport’s biggest stage, Donavan Brazier’s comeback win in the Zurich Diamond League final on Aug. 29 was arguably more impressive. Chasing a man in Nijel Amos who had run 1:41.89 earlier in the season, Brazier steadily reeled in the overly-aggressive Amos by going from eighth to first in the final 400m. The 22-year-old's final 100m was legendary: a 12.7 split displayed the potent finishing speed that ultimately carried him to gold in Doha.

3. Grant Holloway vs. Daniel Roberts 110m Hurdles NCAA final

The most-anticipated matchup of the collegiate season lived up to the hype as Florida’s Grant Holloway out-dueled Kentucky’s Daniel Roberts in June’s 110m hurdles NCAA final, 12.98 to 13.00. Holloway’s time broke Renaldo Nehemiah’s 40-year-old collegiate record, while Roberts tied the old mark in the greatest high hurdles race in NCAA history.

WOW WOW WOW ???

1️⃣2️⃣.9️⃣8️⃣ ??? pic.twitter.com/7y9pwpNgq8

— NCAA Track & Field (@NCAATrackField) June 8, 2019

2. Karsten Warholm vs. Rai Benjamin 400m Hurdles Zurich

Never had two men gone sub-47 seconds in the same race before Norway’s Karsten Warholm (46.92) and American Rai Benjamin (46.98) did so in the Diamond League final in Zurich. The pair had never raced each other before this historic meeting, and their youth-- Warholm is 23, Benjamin 22-- suggests they’ll be pushing each other to the 46.78 world record for many years to come.

1. Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 Marathon

It certainly takes a lot for a “race” with just one finisher to qualify as the best race of the year, but Eliud Kipchoge’s 1:59:40 marathon on Oct. 12 in Vienna, Austria, transcended the sport of running like no other result in 2019. And it’s not even close. The possibility of a sub-2:00 marathon only truly became a reality in this era because of Kipchoge’s singular talent-- nevermind those who would have you believe it’s all thanks to the shoes and pacers. I prefer a championship race to an exhibition any day, but if Kipchoge is running the stakes matter much less than his mere presence.