Bolt takes athlete of the year honours

Sprint king Usain Bolt won an unprecedented sixth IAAF male Athlete of the Year award on Friday, Ethiopian Almaz Ayana picking up the female award after her record-setting 10,000m gold in Rio.

“It’s a bit different for swimming but for most track and field athletes it never goes well”, he added. The women in athletics award, which recognises outstanding achievements and contributions made to develop, encourage and strengthen the participation of women and girls at all levels of the sport, went to Polyxeni Argeitaki.

The awards were handed out Friday by the IAAF at a gala ceremony in Monaco.

Bolt, who owns the 200m world record of 19.19 from 2009, finally gave up on his goal of lowering the mark at an interesting time and place – during the Rio Olympic 200m final.

Usain Bolt, victor of a sixth IAAF Athlete of the Year award on Friday, remains a beacon for clean athletes amid doping and corruption scandals that have mired the sport in recent times. But coming off the bend in the final, he felt his legs didnt have a record-beating performance in them.

Borussia Dortmund striker Pierre-Emerick Aubameyang is eagerly awaiting the arrival of Usain Bolt at the club – so he can challenge the Jamaican superstar for the title of fastest man on the planet.

“(Legendary US 200 and 400m runner) Michael Johnson ended his career at 32 and he accomplished a lot, so I’m going to end my career at 31, that’s pretty good”.

“But 100 and 200 meters of running, this is nothing natural”.

Asked here if, like the swimmer Michael Phelps, he could see himself coming back from retirement for Tokyo 2020 to add further Olympic golds to the nine he now owns, he was adamant.

“I discussed this with my coach, and he told me: “Do not retire and come back”.

“I’ve been working for years to make sure I’m ready when I’m ready”.

“I’m still talking to people about what I will do afterwards and I definitely want to stay involved in the sport but at the moment I am just looking forward to doing nothing”, said Bolt.

“This season is pretty much mainly for the fans, ” Bolt said.

“People are always trying to call me out”, laughed the Jamaican, speaking to CNN ahead of the release of the bio-pic “I am Bolt”. “He knows I’m going to win”.

“The man is a genius”, IAAF president Sebastian Coe said of Bolt in Rio.

“Not even for charity?” a journalist asked.