IAAF names athletes of the year

Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele and Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva [ Images ] were named on Sunday as the International Association of Athletics Federations' male and female athletes of the year.

Bekele, 22, won the world cross-country long and short course titles for the third consecutive time this year.

He set a world indoor 5,000 record and also broke his compatriot Haile Gebrselassie's world outdoor 5,000 and 10,000 marks before going on to win the Olympic [ Images ] 10,000 metres title in Athens followed by a silver medal behind Morocco's Hicham El Guerrouj in the 5,000.

Isinbayeva, also 22, won the Olympic title and set eight world records, three of them indoors.

El Guerrouj was given a special award for the male performance of the year with his Olympic 1,500 and 5,000 double.

Britain's Kelly Holmes, who won the 800-1,500 double in Athens, won the women's performance of the year award.

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