At the World Athletics Awards in Monaco, Olympic winners Letsile Tebogo and Sifan Hassan were honoured as the best male and female athlete of this year.
Tebogo also won the 200-metre race in Paris with an African record time of 19.46 seconds, making him Botswana’s first Olympic champion. He also helped set a new African record, winning silver in the men’s 4x400m relay.
Besides winning the Best Male Athlete award, he was recognized as the Male Track Athlete of the Year as well. American Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, who broke her own world record by winning gold in the 400m hurdles in Paris, won the award for the Female Track Athlete of the Year.
About his achievement, Tebogo said: “It feels amazing to know that the fans are always there for us athletes… It was a great year. This means a lot.”
The Best Female Athlete of the Year, Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, became the first athlete in 72 years to win medals in all three events at the same Olympic Games after winning gold in the women’s marathon and bronze in the 5,000 and 10,000 metres in Paris.
Hassan declared: “I never thought I was going to win this one… This year was crazy.”
Hassan also won the award for the Female Out-of-Stadium athlete of the year. Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia, the gold winner of the men’s marathon in Paris, took home the corresponding award for men.
The award for the Male Field Athlete of the Year went to Sweden’s Mondo Duplantis, who broke his own world record while winning gold in the pole vault. Yaroslava Mahuchikh, a Ukrainian high jump champion, won the award for the Female Field Athlete of the Year.
Source: BBC