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Ethiopia's Kenenisa Bekele has been named the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) male athlete of the year for the second straight season. At the prestigious annual World Athletics Gala, hosted at the Hotel Fairmont in Monte-Carlo by the International Athletic Foundation (IAF) Honorary President HSH Prince Albert II of Monaco and IAF & IAAF President Lamine Diack last weekend, Bekele retained the award won in 2004. Fellow Ethiopian Tirunesh Dibaba also received the award for the best women's performance of the season. Bekele, 23, retained his world 10,000 metres title in Helsinki last month after winning his fourth successive World cross country double gold at the world cross country championships in St Etienne. He also improved his own World 10,000m record by nearly three seconds to 26:17.53 at the 29th Van Damme Memorial - IAAF/TDK Golden League meeting in Brussels last month. Dibaba,19, on the other hand won the women's award after becoming the first woman ever to win the World championships 5000m and 10,000m double in Helsinki, Finland. She won an historic short and long-course double at the World Cross Country Championships in St-Galmier, France in March and broke the world indoor 5000m record at the Reebok Boston Indoor Games in January. After a panel selection process that followed the public vote from Monday 5 September at 07:00 GMT till 07:00 GMT on Thursday 8 September, 2005, your votes for the African athletes on this website finally counted. Past IAF Athletes of the Year 1988 Carl Lewis (USA) Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA)
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Are you a feature writer? contact us Related links African Athletics Confederation International Amateur Athletics Federation IAAF World Athletics Final/Gala Monaco 2005
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