El Guerrouj, Radcliffe named IAAF athletes of year

Hicham El Guerrouj and Paula Radcliffe were named Athletes of the Year by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) on Sunday.

The Moroccan middle distance runner became the first male athlete to win the award in consecutive seasons at a ceremony presided over by Prince Albert of Monaco and IAAF president Lamine Diack.

Britain's Radcliffe capped a brilliant season with a world best time of 2:17:18 to win the Chicago Marathon last month. It was the first time a woman had run the distance in under two hours and 18 minutes.

Radcliffe, 28, ended all doubts about her quality as a long distance runner in a year in which she won gold medals at the European championships and Commonwealth Games.

El Guerrouj, also 28, was unbeaten in 11 races at 1,500 metres or one mile in 2002, including all IAAF Golden League races and the Grand Prix Final, where he just lost out in the overall standings when American Tim Montgomery ran 9.78 to set a new 100 metres world record.

The other men's finalists were Montgomery and the Dominican Republic's Felix Sanchez, who won a share of the IAAF Golden League jackpot.

In the women's contest, the other finalists were American Marion Jones and Ana Guevara of Mexico, who were both jackpot winners and grand prix champions.

The first Primo Nebiolo Lifetime Achievement Award, named after the late former IAAF president, was awarded to Kenyan Kip Keino, the Olympic 1,500 metres champion in 1968 and 3,000 metres steeplechase winner in 1972 who also held world records at 3,000 and 5,000 metres.