Jamaican Sprinter Usain Bolt & Australian Hurdler Sally Pearson named Athlete of the Year by IAAF

Jamaican sprint icon Usain Bolt and Australian hurdler Sally Pearson won  'Athlete of the Year' awards in Monaco on 12 November 2011. They were named athletes of the year by athletics' governing body, the IAAF.

Bolt, the Olympic 100 metres champion, won the award for the third time after being honoured in 2008 and 2009. He retained his 200m crown at the World championships in Daegu where he also helped Jamaica defend the 4x100m relay in a new world record time of 37.04sec.

It was in Daegu that Pearson produced the fourth fastest time in history, and the fastest in 19 years, for the women's hurdles event which she dominated in a time of 12.21sec. Pearson won 10 of her 11 competitions and produced seven of the season's quickest 11 performances. She became the first athlete from Australia to be honoured as such by the IAAF since the awards were introduced in 1988. Pearson was recognised ahead of contenders in Kenyan distance runner Vivian Cheruiyot, who won three world titles this year (5000m, 10,000m and cross country) and New Zealand's world shot put champion Valerie Adams.

Both athletes picked up cheques for $100,000.

Other Winners

Other award winners at the ceremony included Blake, who was feted for his 19.26s-run — the second fastest 200m performance in historyat the Memorial van DammeDiamond League final in Brussels.

Cheruiyot also won a prize for her 5000-10000m double gold haul at the Daegu championships, a feat achieved only once before, by Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia in the 2005 Worlds.