Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and Ethiopian Almaz Ayana named top athletes of the year as Tegla Loroupe is honored for her great service in athletics

[PHOTO: COURTESY]

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt and Ethiopia’s Almaz Ayana were named the male and female World Athletes of the Year at the IAAF Athletics Awards which were held yesterday.

Usain Bolt who has won the award five times successfully defended his Olympic titles in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m, bringing his lifetime tally of Olympic gold medals to nine.

Ayana had a record-breaking year after recording the fastest 10,000m debut in history in June, the Ethiopian went on to win the Olympic title at the distance in a world record of 29:17.45.

She becomes the third Ethiopian woman to win this award, following Genzebe Dibaba in 2015 and Meseret Defar in 2007.

Tegla Loroupe was honored with the Chef de Mission for the Refugee Olympic Team in Rio. The award recognizes and honors her great service to athletics.

The former marathon world record-holder helped select the Refugee Olympic Team after the Tegla Loroupe Peace Foundation held a competition at the Kakuma refugee camp in north-west Kenya.