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Bolt and Fraser are Jamaica's best of 2009

World and Olympic champions Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser were on Friday night (8) named Jamaica’s track & field athletes of 2009.

Usain Bolt and Shelly-Ann Fraser pose with their Jamaica Track & Field 2009 Athletes of the Year Awards (Trackalerts.com)

At the Jamaica Amateur Athletic Association (JAAA) ‘Golden Cleats’ Awards function, held at Jamaica House, the office of the Prime Minister, Bolt and Fraser, the World and Olympic 100m champions, were presented with their awards in front of about 200 people.

Bolt, 23, retained his position as the world’s leading sprinter by shattering both his 100 and 200 metres World records with incredible times at the World Championships in Germany in August. The fastest man in the world ran 9.58 seconds in the 100m and 19.19 seconds in the 200m in Berlin.

Bolt said this award means a lot to him, just the for the fact that it’s a home honour. “Its always an honour to be honoured by your countrymen,” said Bolt, who last November took the World Male Athlete of the Year crown.

Bolt’s main focus this year would be to work on his start, noting “I am going to work on my consistency with my start.”Meanwhile, Fraser, who broke Jamaica’s Merlene Ottey’s 13-year-old 10.74 record when she crossed the finish line in 10.73secs, beat Brigitte Foster-Hylton (100mH) and Melaine Walker (400mH), all gold medalists from Berlin, for the women's title.

“I am feeling good, as anybody else would feel to be recognized,” said Fraser. “If Melaine or Brigitte had won, I would have feel the same for them because I train with them, so I know the hard work that they put in,” she added while saying training for the 2010 season is going great. - IAAF

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