MONTE-CARLO (CMC)

Usain Bolt of Jamaica and Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia have copped the prestigious IAAF World Athletes of the Year awards.

The announcement was made yesterday during the World Athletics Gala hosted by Prince Albert II of Monaco and IAAF President Lamine Diack in the Salle des Etoiles of the Sporting Club d'Ete´ Monte Carlo.

The 22-year-old Bolt thrilled the world when he captured three gold medals at this year's Olympic Games in the Chinese capital of Beijing, winning the men's 100 and 200 metres, as well sprinting the third leg on Jamaica's triumphant 4x100 relay team.

Bolt clocked 9.39 seconds to win the 100m dash and 19.30 to take the 200m, both were world record times, as was Jamaica's 37.10 in the quarter-mile relay.

An honour

"I have a motto that anything is possible," said Bolt. "But this really is such an honour.

"Just to be included with every great name in the sport is wonderful. I'll try to do it year after year," he said.

Undefeated in nine outdoor competitions this year, the 26-year-old Isinbayeva raised her own world record in the pole vault on three occasions this year, and defended her Olympic title, also with a world record vault of 5.05 metres.

It is her third world Athlete of the Year title, previously winning in 2004 and 2005.

Very proud

"I'm very proud," she said. "It feels like the first time after getting over my difficulties of 2006 and 2007. I will make a very special place of honour for this trophy.

"I knew it was going to be difficult over the last two seasons. I was very confident that I could break through the wall," She said.

Bolt's two individual World records at the Olympics were also nominated for the Male Perfor-mance of the Year, but surprisingly, Cuba's Dayron Robles toppled him for this award.

Robles broke the world record in the men's 110m hurdles in June when he clocked 12.87 to win the event in Ostrava on June 12. It was a world record improvement of one hundredth of a second.

On the women's side, Ethiopia's Tirunesh Dibaba and Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic shared the women's prize.

Dibaba won for her world record of 14 minutes, 11.15 seconds in the 5,000m set in Oslo, last June, which improved by over five seconds on the one-year-old mark of arch-rival and compatriot Meseret Defar.

Spotakova gained a share of the award for her hurl of 72.28m in the javelin in Stuttgart on September 13, where she won at the World Athletics Final. It was an improvement over the previous standard by 58 centimetres.

Isinbayeva's world-record pole vault in Beijing was also under consideration.

Another big winner was the Kenyan teenager Pamela Jelimo. She won the Revelation of the Year award after she came from nowhere to finish the season unbeaten in the 800 metres. Jelimo, who only took up the event last April, also captured the Olympic gold and the US$1 million IAAF Golden League jackpot.