• Botswana’s Tebogo becomes the first African to win both the Olympic 200m gold and the world athlete award.

• The young sprinter was shocked by this honour after the historic Paris Olympics victory.

Botswana’s sprint sensation Letsile Tebogo has been named the world’s best male athlete after his historic Olympic gold medal.

World Athletics crowned Tebogo and women’s marathon champion Sifan Hassan as their athletes of the year at a ceremony in Monaco on Sunday.

Tebogo made history in Paris when he became the first African to win Olympic gold in the 200m sprint, crossing the line in just 19.46 seconds.

“This means a lot. It’s not just about the team that is around you, there are a lot of fans out there that want us to win something great for the continent,” said a surprised Tebogo at the awards.

“It was a real surprise to hear my name because I didn’t expect this.”

Hassan took the women’s award after an amazing week in Paris where she won marathon gold and two bronze medals on the track.

“I never thought I was going to win this one,” she said at the ceremony. “This year was crazy. It’s not only me but all the athletes have been amazing.”

World Athletics Award winners list:

• Women’s World Athlete of the Year: Sifan Hassan (NED)
• Men’s World Athlete of the Year: Letsile Tebogo (BOT)
• Women’s track: Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone (USA)
• Women’s field: Yaroslava Mahuchikh (UKR)
• Women’s out-of-stadium: Sifan Hassan (NED)
• Men’s track: Letsile Tebogo (BOT)
• Men’s field: Armand Duplantis (SWE)
• Men’s out-of-stadium: Tamirat Tola (ETH)
• Women’s Rising Star: Sembo Almayew (ETH)
• Men’s Rising Star: Mattia Furlani (ITA)

Pictured above: Letsile Tebogo after being named World Athletics male athlete of the year.

Source: @trackgazette