Bolt and Isinbayeva voted as male and female athlete of the year
Olympic 100m and 200m athletics champion Usain Bolt has been voted as the male athlete of the year by the international media for 2008.
Olympic pole vault champion Yelena Isinbayeva took sportswoman of the year honours.
The European football champions, Spain, was voted team of the year.
The winners are voted for by the International Sports Press Association journalists from around the world. 96 nations were involved. Bolt received 1673 points to beat USA swimmer Michael Phelps who received 1557 points.
Usain Bolt winning 100m Olympic gold in Beijing
Bolt of course electrified the track in the Beijing Olympic stadium back in August. He won individual gold in world record times for the 100m and 200m. He also collected a third gold in the 4x100m relay. I was fortunate enough to be in the crowd on the night he took out the 100m final in convincing fashion.
Michael Phelps was the star in the pool in Beijing winning an amazing eight gold medals to surpass the seven won by Mark Spitz in Munich. I still remember his amazing swim in the 100m butterfly final as he snatched it in the last stroke to win by 1/100th of a second over Milorad Cavic.
Tennis world no. 1 Rafael Nadal came in a distant third with 444 points. This was despite his amazing season where he won yet again at the French Open and then followed that up by winning for the first time at Wimbledon. His match against Roger Federer will go down as a classic.
For the sportwoman of the year Isinbayeva easily took the title with 1723 points, second was another athletics star Pamela Jelimo with 631. Jelimo from Kenya won the in Olympic 800m final as well as taking the $US1 million Golden League jackpot by winning all six meetings. Jelena Jankovic the tennis player from Serbia came third with 583 points despite not winning a Grand Slam tournament.
Spain polled 1395 points to take the team title ahead of the Jamaican sprint relay team on 1154 with UEFA Champions League winners Manchester United third on 769.
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