In which top candidates appear lean in sportswear (10)

I believe the answer is:

shortlists

I'm a little stuck... Click here to teach me more about this clue!

'in which top candidates appear' is the definition.
The definition and answer are not the same part of speech.

'lean in sportswear' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite see how this works, but
'lean' could be 'list' (I've seen this before) and 'list' is present in the answer.
The remaining letters 'shorts' is a valid word which might be clued in a way I don't see.
This explanation may well be incorrect...

Can you help me to learn more?

I've seen this clue in The Independent.

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