Bolt, Pearson declared Athletes of the Year

Jamaica’s Usain Bolt won his third IAAF World Athlete of the Year award yesterday, beating off challenges from compatriot Yohan Blake and Kenya’s David Rudisha. Australia’s Sally Pearson took home the women’s honour.The winners were each presented trophies and cheques for $100,000 by Prince of Monaco Albert II and IAAF president Lamine Diack yesterday at the glittering IAAF gala.    Bolt, who won back-to-back awards in 2008 and 2009 after setting double world records each year, retained his IAAF World Championships 200m title in Daegu this year while anchoring the Jamaican team to a new world record 37.04 seconds in the 4x100m relay.He now joins El Guerrouj as the only athletes with three titles. The Moroccan middle distance runner won in 2001, 2002 and 2003 after remaining unbeaten in more than 20 races.But Bolt confessed he was not expecting to win this year. “It came as a surprise for me. “This season was a hard one for me with ups and downs. So I’m really delighted and it will motivate me to work even harder to go for other challenges ahead,” he said.Bolt got onto the list on the back of two gold medals he won in the 200 metres and 4x100 relay at the World Championships in Daegu despite his disqualification at the start of the 100 final, which Blake won.Having finished the season unbeaten, with the fastest 100m time of the year 9.76 seconds, he confirmed there would not be a major change in his training regime. “Everything will remain the same, apart from addition of a couple of relay races,” he said.His competitors Blake, who ran his personal best 9.82 seconds in the 100m twice in the season, also set his personal best in the 200m, a stunning 19.26 seconds, the second fastest ever, behind his own world record time of 19.19 seconds.Australia’s Pearson left behind her challengers, New Zealand shot putter Valerie Adams and Kenyan runner Vivian Cheruiyot, on the strength of her blazing run to win the women’s 100m hurdles in Daegu.Adams won her third successive world shot put title in Daegu, while Cheruyiot won both the 5,000 and 10,000 titles.“It’s definitely a huge honour when you consider who you are up against,” said Pearson, whose winning time of 12.28s was the fourth fastest time in history.Pearson, who took up athletics at the age of 16 with a  4x100m relay race at the 2003 world championships, reached the Commonwealth Games final three years later in Melbourne.“It’s pretty amazing to come to Europe and do it as we really struggle in Australia. I’m delighted to do it from junior to senior level.”“The race really felt easy to me,” she said, reflecting on that hurdles final where her victory was never in doubt from the gun. “In terms of perfect race I’m not sure about it, but yes I am quite a perfectionist when it comes to my performance.”