Sprinter Usain Bolt Named World Athlete of the Year

Olympic world record holder Usain Bolt has been named World Athlete of the Year for a fifth time.

The Jamaican sprinter beat off competition from Great Britain's Mo Farah to claim the title at an awards ceremony hosted by the International Athletics Foundation in Monaco on Saturday.

Bolt, 27, also won the prestigious title last year and clinched gold medals in the 100m, 200m and 4x100m in the World Championships in Moscow in August. He became the most successful athlete in the history of the World Championships this year after winning his eighth gold medal and tenth medal in total.

Speaking at the awards ceremony, Bolt said his target for 2014 is to beat his 200m world record of 19.19 seconds.

"That has always been my dream; that has always been my aim," he said. "This season will be the season when I will be going for world records because there are no major [outdoor] championships.

"The 200m is much easier than the 100m to try for a record and that would be my main focus this season."

Bolt, who has previously stated that he may retire after the Rio 2016 Olympic Games, said he is considering competing at the 2017 World Championships in London.

"I was having some talk about this with my coach and he was saying people had said I should go for another year," he said.

Fellow Jamaican athlete Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was awarded the female World Athlete of the Year Award, after regaining her 100m title at the World Championships in Moscow and winning three gold medals. Fraser-Pryce, 26, won the 100m race in 10.71 seconds - the fastest time of the year.

"I'm shocked and excited," she said. "It's something that has been a dream of mine. Not all the time do things happen that we want to happen, but this did."

Also at the awards ceremony, Great Britain's Daley Thompson, who was the decathlon gold medallist at the 1980 Olympics, was inducted into the International Association of Athletics Federations Hall of Fame.