The athletics database website based its awards on its Overall Rankings by December 27.

Bolt, also voted the International Association of Athletics Federations' (IAAF) athlete of the year, failed to retain his world 100 metre title after false-starting in Daegu but did defend his 200m title before anchoring the Jamaican relay team to a world record of 37.04sec and then finishing his season with the fastest 100m of the year – 9.76.

Jeter finished the season as the world 100m champion and world 200m silver medallist.


In the regional awards, Kenya's David Rudisha, who won the world 800m title, and female winner Vivian Cherulyot, who did the 5,000m and 10,000m double in Daegu, won the African honours while Liu Xiang, the world 110m silver medallist, and Maryam Yusuf Jamal of Bahrain respectively earned the accolades as the male and female Asian athletes of the year.

The European men's award went to Britain's Mo Farah, world gold and silver medallist at 5,000m and 10,000m respectively, with Tatyana Chernova winning the female award.

The Oceania winners are Australia's Mitchell Watt, the world long jump silver medallist, and the world 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson, who also took the IAAF female award.

The South American female athlete of the year award went to the Brazil world pole vault champion Fabiana Murer, with the men's award shared jointly by Lins Tenorio de Barros of Brazil and Irving Saladino of Panama.

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