"Are you sure it's me?" he said, according to the sports daily L'Equipe, after the French Athletics Federation's announcement.

"I haven't really done anything of note this year...I'm happy even if I'm not the only one who deserves this award."

While the 21-year-old Lemaitre may not have added any golds to the three he won last year in the 100 metres, 200m and 4x100m at the European Championship, he took 200m bronze at the IAAF World Championships in Daegu in 19.80sec, 0.36 faster than the previous national record he shared with Gilles Queneherve, and anchored the sprint relay team to silver behind the world record-breaking Jamaicans.

Lemaitre, who last year became the first white sprinter to break 10 seconds for the 100m, also lowered his French 100m record three times, finishing at 9.92.

The award is voted by readers of Athlétisme Magazine and the athle.com website.

Bernard Amsalem, the president of the FFA, said Lemaitre was popular with people across the board, particularly the young.

"He inspires an empathy and a simplicity....it makes him eminently sympathetic in the eyes of a large number of people," he said, adding that "children said they want to be like Christophe Lemaitre."

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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