Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele and Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva were named athletes of the year for 2004 at the IAAF Grand Prix finals here.
The duo, both 22, succeeded last year's winners Hicham El-Guerrouj of Morocco and South Africa's Hestrie Cloete.
PHOTO: EPA
Bekele had an astonishing season winning the Olympic Games 10,000m and suffered his only defeat in the final of the 5,000m in Athens where he lost to El Guerrouj.
Before the Games, Bekele had set two new world records in the space of eight days.
On May 31, at Hengelo in the Netherlands, he smashed the 5,000m mark in 12min 37.35sec and then, on June 8 at Ostrava in the Czech Republic, he lowered the 10,000m record to 26min 20.31sec.
On top of that, Bekele won a third successive world cross-country title.
Isinbayeva, dubbed the "Sergei Bubka of the women's polevault," took Olympic gold and recorded eight records, setting the new mark of 4.92m in Brussels on Sept. 3.
El Guerrouj and Britain's Kelly Holmes were honored for Performance of the Year.
The Moroccan clinched double gold in Athens in the 1,500m and 5,000m, his first Olympic titles, while Holmes also went home with two golds in the 800m and 1,500m.
By the time Cameron Menzies finally left the arena on Monday, the blood gushing from the gash on his right hand had trickled down his wrist, part of his forearm and — somehow — up to his face. Smeared in crimson and regret, and already mouthing sheepish apologies to the crowd, he disappeared down the steps, pursued by a stern-looking Matt Porter, the chief executive of Professional Darts Corp (PDC). The physical scars from Menzies’ encounter with the Alexandra Palace drinks table after his 3-2 defeat against Charlie Manby at the Darts World Championship would be gone within a few weeks.
Manchester United on Monday blew the lead three times to miss out on moving up to fifth in the Premier League as AFC Bournemouth would not be beaten in a thrilling 4-4 draw at Old Trafford. United have lost just once in their past 10 games, but Ruben Amorim would be frustrated as more points at home were frittered away despite arguably the best attacking display of his reign in charge. Amad Diallo and Casemiro gave the hosts a halftime lead either side of Antoine Semenyo’s equalizer. Two Bournemouth goals from Evanilson and Marcus Tavernier in seven minutes at the start of the
LOW-GOAL SHOOT-OUT: Of the nine penalties in the shoot-out, only three went in, with Flamengo’s Samuel Lino, and Vitinha and Nuno Mendes of PSG netting Matvei Safonov on Wednesday made four straight penalty saves in a penalty shoot-out to help Paris Saint-Germain beat Flamengo in the Intercontinental Cup final and win a sixth trophy of the year. The Russian goalkeeper was thrown in the air by his teammates after his exploits in the shoot-out, which was won 2-1 by PSG after a 1-1 draw after extra-time. It completed a trophy-laden 12 months for the French team, who had already won the Trophee des Champions, Ligue 1, the Coupe de France, the UEFA Champions League and the UEFA Super Cup — also on penalties against Tottenham Hotspur in
LACKLUSTER FIGHT: At one stage, the referee lost patience with the two fighters, warning them in the fourth round that ‘the fans did not pay to see this crap’ Former world heavyweight champion Anthony Joshua on Friday knocked out YouTuber-turned-boxer Jake Paul in their controversial Netflix-backed bout in Miami. The fight at the Kaseya Center, which saw both men reportedly splitting a mammoth purse of US$184 million, had triggered alarm across boxing due to the gulf in physical size and class between Britain’s two-time former world champion Joshua and Paul, an Internet personality who has forged a lucrative career through a handful of novelty boxing contests. However, in the event, Joshua made hard work of defeating his vastly less accomplished opponent, before his superior size and power eventually told
RSS