Dutch marathon runner Sifan Hassan and Botswanan sprinter Letsile Tebogo, both of whom took gold at the Paris Olympics, were named \u2018Athletes of the Year\u2019 by World Athletics in Monaco on Sunday.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Hassan, who also won the out-of-stadium award, was rewarded for her incredible performance in the French capital which stretched beyond the marathon and on to the track.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the space of seven days, she won two bronze medals in the 5,000 metres, having also run a heat, and the 10,000m, and a spectacular gold in the marathon when she outsprinted Ethiopia\u2019s then world record holder Tigist Assefa to win by just three seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI never thought I was going to win this one,\u201d said Hassan<\/a> after receiving her award in Monaco. \u201cThis year was crazy. It\u2019s not only me \u2014 all the athletes have been amazing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Tebogo<\/a> received his award after becoming the first African to be crowned Olympic champion in the 200m, crossing the line at the Stade de France in 19.46 seconds, edging out the American Kenny Bednarek and favourite Noah Lyles.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThis means a lot,\u201d said Tebogo who doubled up with the men\u2019s track award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s not just about the team that is around you, there are a lot of fans out there that really want us to win something great for the continent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt was a real surprise to hear my name because I didn\u2019t expect this.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The international athletics federation also decided to reward a number of other athletes who shone at the Olympics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Swedish pole-vaulter Armand Duplantis<\/a> won the men\u2019s field category after an unbeaten 2024, winning Olympic gold and setting a new world record of 6.26 metres.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ukrainian Yaroslava Mahuchikh<\/a> was the winner in the women\u2019s event, after improving the old high jump world record to 2.10m at the age of just 22 and also winning Olympic gold in Paris.<\/p>\n\n\n\n In addition to Tebogo, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone<\/a> was rewarded in the track category for beating her own world record in the 400m hurdles, running 50.37 to win gold in Paris, while men\u2019s Olympic marathon champion Tamirat Tola of Ethiopia was given the out-of-stadium award.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Ethiopian steeplechaser Sembo Almayew and Italian long-jumper Mattia Furlani were given the rising star awards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the ceremony, a moment was taken to remember last year\u2019s men\u2019s out-of-stadium athlete of the year Kelvin Kiptum<\/a>, the marathon world record-holder who died in a road traffic accident in February.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s World Athlete of the Year:<\/strong> Sifan Hassan (NED)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s World Athlete of the Year:<\/strong> Letsile Tebogo (BOT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s track:<\/strong> Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s field:<\/strong> Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s out-of-stadium:<\/strong> Sifan Hassan (NED)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s track:<\/strong> Letsile Tebogo (BOT)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s field:<\/strong> Armand Duplantis (SWE)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s out-of-stadium:<\/strong> Tamirat Tola (ETH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Women\u2019s Rising Star:<\/strong> Sembo Almayew (ETH)<\/p>\n\n\n\n Men\u2019s Rising Star:<\/strong> Mattia Furlani (ITA)<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Dutch marathon runner Sifan Hassan and Botswanan sprinter Letsile Tebogo, both of whom took gold at the Paris Olympics, were named \u2018Athletes of the Year\u2019 by World Athletics in Monaco on Sunday. Hassan, who also won the out-of-stadium award, was rewarded for her incredible performance in the French capital which stretched beyond the marathon and […]<\/p>","protected":false},"author":10,"featured_media":9253,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[396,53],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9252","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-latest","category-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/10"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9252"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9252\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9253"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9252"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9252"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.asiafreepress.com\/en_gb\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9252"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<\/a>World Athletics Awards:<\/h2>\n\n\n\n