Monaco: Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Ethiopian distance runner Almaz Ayana were crowned as the IAAF’s Athletes of the Year’ here Friday.
Bolt completed his amazing Olympic ‘triple triple’ of 100metres, 200metres and 4x100m relay golds at the Rio Games in August despite missing much of the season through injury and took the award for the sixth time. He clocked season’s bests of 9.81 seconds and 19.78 seconds to win the 100m and 200m in Rio and then anchored the Jamaican team to a world-leading 37.27 seconds when winning the 4x100m.
Bolt, 30, plans to run the 100m only at next year’s World Championships in London, seeking to add to his haul of 11 world titles.
Ayana produced a stunning run on the first day of athletics in Rio when she shattered the 10,000-metres world record that had stood for 23 years. Her time of 29 minutes, 17.45 seconds smashed the mark of 29:31.78s that was set by Wang Junxia of China in 1993.
Ayana also took bronze in the Rio 5000m, her only loss of the year over the distance. She ended the year as the Diamond Race winner for that discipline. She became the third Ethiopian woman to win the IAAF award, following Genzebe Dibaba in 2015 and Meseret Defar in 2007.
Meanwhile the world’s fastest man, Bolt said that he is planning to slow down on his activities and that he doesn’t plan to run the 200 metres in his final season, realising that his world record of 19.19 seconds is now likely beyond him.
“After last season, I kind of figured out that no matter how hard I work at this point, it probably is going to be hard to get the 200-metre world record,” Bolt told reporters ahead of the award distribution ceremony. “And it’s a lot more work and for me, coming to the end of my career, I’m not trying to do too much work,” added the legendary athlete.
Bolt also didn’t sound optimistic about breaking his 100-metre record of 9.58s, either. “If I can go through my season, which I doubt without any injuries, then anything is possible,” he said.
Bolt ruled out a return for the 2020 Tokyo Games. The nine-time Olympic champion said his coach has told him, “Do not retire and come back to the sport, don’t ever do that. So you have got to make sure you are sure about your retirement plans.”
Agencies
