Sunday, December 14, 2008

Sprinter Bolt wins Overseas award

Bolt takes Overseas Personality award

Olympic sprinting triple gold medallist Usain Bolt has capped off a superb year by winning BBC Sports Personality's Overseas Personality award.

The 22-year-old broke the world records in both the 100m and 200m before helping the Jamaican 4x100m team to victory for his third Beijing gold.

"It's been a long season and I've worked hard," Bolt said via videolink.

"It feels good to be presented with this wonderful award and it means a lot to me."

Bolt clinched the first of his treble, the 100m gold, in a world-record time of 9.69 seconds, breaking his own record by three-hundredths of a second.

I'll definitely try to work even harder to get it next year

Usain Bolt
The 6ft 5in powerhouse then added the 200m title in a more emphatic fashion, eclipsing the world record time of 19.32 set by American Michael Johnson who could only watch in the BBC commentary box as Bolt crossed the line in 19.30.

And Bolt's third gold came in the 4x100m, running the third leg for his team whose anchor Asafa Powell helped the team break the Americans hold on the Olympic and world record with a time of 37.10 seconds.

After apologising for his absence from the Sports Personality of the Year award show in Liverpool, Bolt said: "I'd like to thank the BBC for this award along with my friends and family, and also my coach.

"I'll definitely try to work even harder to get it next year, I'll be continuing to try and do my best."

OVERSEAS SPORTS PERSONALITY WINNERS

1960 Herb Elliot 1985 Boris Becker
1961 Valeriy Brumel 1986 Greg Norman
1962 Donald Jackson 1987 Martina Navratilova
1963 Jacques Anquetil 1988 Steffi Graf
1964 Abebe Bikila 1989 Mike Tyson
1965 Ron Clarke & Gary Player 1990 Mal Meninga
1966 Eusebio & Gary Sobers 1991 Mike Powell
1967 George Moore 1992 Andre Powell
1968 O Protopopov & L Belousova 1993 Greg Norman
1969 Rod Laver 1994 Brian Lara
1970 Pele 1995 Jonah Lomu
1971 Lee Trevino 1996 E Holyfield & M Johnson
1972 Olga Korbut 1997 Martina Hingis
1973 Muhammad Ali 1998 Mark O'Meara
1974 Muhammad Ali 1999 Maurice Greene
1975 Arthur Ashe 2000 Tiger Woods
1976 Nadia Comaneci 2001 Goran Ivanisevic
1977 Niki Lauda 2002 Ronaldo
1978 Muhammad Ali 2003 Lance Armstrong
1979 Bjorn Borg 2004 Roger Federer
1980 Jack Nicklaus 2005 Shane Warne
1981 Chris Evert-Lloyd 2006 Roger Federer
1982 Jimmy Connors 2007 Roger Federer
1983 Carl Lewis 2008 Usain Bolt
1984 Seve Ballesteros

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