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Summary
The Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and United States 400 metres runner Sanya Richards have won their second IAAF World Athlete of the Year awards. Bolt retained the honour for winning the 100m and 200m finals in world record times at the World Championships in Berlin, matching his sprint double at the Beijing Olympics.It's been an amazing year for me, said Bolt, whose training was hampered by a foot injury after he crashed his car in April. I had to refocus my goals and put in a lot of hard work. I did extremely well and I'm proud of myself. Richards, the 2006 winner, won her first individual gold medal at a major championships in Berlin. She also won at all six Golden League meetings in Europe to claim a share of the $1m jackpot (605,000) offered to athletes who swept their event. Bolt topped a shortlist that included his sprint rival Gay and three other world champions: the 5,000m and 10,000m winner Kenenisa Bekele, of Ethiopia, the pole vaulter Steven Hooker, of Australia, and the Norwegian javelin thrower Andreas Thorkildsen.
