Bolt named World Athlete of the Year for the 4th time in 5 years while Felix wins the women's award for the first time

Fastest person ever, reigning triple Olympic champion in sprints and five-time world champion Usain Bolt, 26,  of Jamaica was named  the 2012 IAAF World Athlete of the Year  for the 4th time after 2008, 2009 and 2011 over hurdler Aries Merritt (USA) and runner David Rudisha (KEN)

Allyson Felix, 27, from Los Angeles, USA was awarded the 2012 Female World Athlete of the Year title for the first time. She won three gold medals in 200m, 4x100m and 4x400m at the London Olympics, first women athlete to win three golds in a single Olympics games since 1988.

Both the sprinters also carried away cash prize of USD100,000.


The awards were hosted by International Athletic Foundation (IAF) Honorary President HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and IAF & IAAF President Lamine Diack, who presented the trophies to the Female and Male winners respectively.

The other awards announced in the final day of the IAAF's 100th anniversary celebration held in Barcelona yesterday were:

David Rudisha (KEN) – Male Performance of the Year 
USA Olympic 4x100m Relay team - Female Performance of the Year 
Aries Merritt (USA) - IAAF Inspiration Award 
Keshorn Walcott (TRI) - Male Rising Star 
Antonique Strachan (BAH) - Female Rising Star 
Rob Lida (USA) - Male Master Athlete 
Lynn Ventris (AUS) - Female Master Athlete


Ref. IAAF

2:11:35 (CR) - Raymond Bett leads 6 Kenyans to top 6 placings in 30th Athens Classic Marathon yesterday

 Raymond Bett led 6 fellow Kenyan countrymen among 9,500 runners to win the top 6 places of the 30th edition of the Athens Classic Marathon in a new course record time of 2:11:35 beating the previous record  of 2:11:40 set by Abdelkrim Boubker of Morocco. He was the winner here 2 years ago.

Another Kenyan Chemtai Yadaa won the women's title in 2:40:00 (CR 2:31:06 Rasa Drazdauskaite (LTU) 2010)

There were a total of 26,000 participants in all races

The hilly route of Athens Classic Marathon is the original marathon course created for the inaugural 1896 modern Olympics

Top finishers:
Men
1) 2:11:35 (CR) - Raymond Bett (KEN)
2) 2:12:20 - Paul Kosgei (KEN)
3) 2:12:26 - Alex Kirui (KEN)
Women
1) 2:40:0 - Chemtai Yadaa (KEN)
2) 2:40:07 - Svitlana Stanko (UKR)
3) 2:40:28 - Viola Chelangat Kimetto (KEN)

Tokyo Marathon 2013 will be added as the 6th WMM race

The Tokyo Marathon 2013 will be added as the 6th member of the World Marathon Majors (WMM)  after Boston, London, Berlin, Chicago and New York and will kick off the 2013 WMM series on 24 February followed by Boston on 15 April, London on 21 April, Berlin on 29 September, Chicago in October and New York in November.

The Tokyo Marathon has been one of the world's largest mass marathon races and is currently attracting about 300,000  runners for the 36,000 slots at the Start with about 10% foreigners.

The Tokyo course records of 2:07:23 for men and 2:25:28 for women are currently held by Viktor Rothlin of Switzerland in 2008 and Atsede Habtamu of Ethiopia in 2012 respectively