Bolt and Fraser-Pryce
are the best
FOR the fifth time since 2008, the
Jamaican speedster Usain Bolt was voted Best Athlete
of the Year by the International Association of
Athletics Federations (IAAF), a distinction he
shared with his compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
|
Jamaican
speedsters Usain Bolt and
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce chosen
as IAAF Best Athletes of the Year. |
The two were the clear favorites,
having both won three titles in the Moscow World
Championships. Bolt took the men’s 100 meters, the
200 and the 4×100 relay, with Fraser-Pryce winning
the same races for female runners.
Fraser-Pryce, Olympic champion in
the 100 meters in 2008 and 2012, was competing for
the award along with New Zealand’s Valerie Adams,
four-time world champion in the shot put and Czech
Zuzana Hejnova, 400m hurdles champion.
Fraser-Pryce, the second Jamaican
woman to receive the honor, said the prize was a
dream come true, according to ANSA. (Merlene Ottey
was chosen in 1990.)
Bolt had as his main rivals in the
voting Ukraine’s Bohdan Bondarenko (high jump) and
the UK’s long-distance runner Mohamed Farah.
In a statement cited by the IAAF,
Bolt commented that next year he intends to
establish a new record in the 200 meters, a record
he currently holds with his 19.19 second time in the
Berlin 2009 World Championships.
Other prizes were also awarded,
including those for most promising new athlete, one
of which went to 17-year-old Mary Cain from the
United States, who reached the 1,500 meter finals in
Moscow.
Bolt and Fraser-Pryce were
additionally leading by a wide margin in the
Prensa Latina poll for Best Latin American and
Caribbean Athlete in 2013.
