NORWEGIAN 400m hurdler Karsten Warholm and Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah were named the World Athletes of the Year on Wednesday.

Warholm received the award for smashing the 29-year-old world record in winning the Tokyo Olympics final in a sensational time of 45.94 seconds. His performance is widely considered one of the greatest Olympic track performances of all time.

Thompson-Herah took the women’s award for achieving the sprint double at a second consecutive Olympics.

Thompson-Herah beat fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to the 100m gold in Tokyo and held off 18-year-old Namibian revelation Christine Mboma to retain her 200m title, repeating the double she had won at the 2016 Rio Olympics.

She also clocked 10.54 and 21.53 seconds over 100m and 200m respectively to move to second on the world all-time lists behind the late Florence Griffith Joyner. “I just take it year by year,” said Thompson-Herah. “I went very close to the world record so you know, anything is possible.”

Athing Mu, the 19-year-old American who was a winner of the women’s 800m Olympic title, was named the Female Rising Star. Erriyon Knighton, the American sprinter who at just 17 years finished fourth in the men’s 200m final in Tokyo, won the equivalent men’s award.

(SD-Agencies)