Haile Gebrselassie Wins the AIMS/ASICS WORLD ATHLETE OF THE YEAR AWARD

The great Ethiopian athlete Haile Gebrselassie has been awarded the top honour in world road running, the AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award, for a record-breaking third successive year. The highly coveted award was presented during a ceremony on Sunday 2nd May 2010 in Hawassa, Ethiopia.

AIMS General Secretary Hugh Jones presented the AIMS/ASICS Golden Shoe award, a world accolade from the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), following the inaugural Hawassa Half Marathon, in Ethiopia – a race organised by Haile himself. Gebrselassie enters the history books as a triple winner of the award – more than any other male athlete, including Kenyan Paul Tergat who has won the accolade twice.

The AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Awards were founded in 1992 and are decided each year by way of nominations made by the member races of the world body The Association of International Marathons & Distance Races (AIMS). The membership totals over 300 races in 91 countries covering every continent of the world.

Previous winners of the AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award include Benson Masya (Kenya), Dionicio Ceron (Mexico), Vincent Rousseau (Belgium), Paul Tergat (twice – Kenya), Josia Thugwane (South Africa), Ronaldo da Costa (Brazil), Abel Anton (Spain), Gezahenge Abera (Ethiopia), Josephat Kiprono (Kenya), Khalid Kannouchi (USA), Stefano Baldini (Italy) and Jaouad Gharib (Morocco).

Hiroaki Chosa, World President of AIMS comments: "It is a privilege to honour today the considerable achievements of record breaking athlete Haile Gebrselassie. Haile once again had an outstanding year and has proved by winning this award for the third successive occasion that he is not only an athlete of the highest calibre but is one of, if not the, greatest marathon runner of all time. It is my pleasure for AIMS to acknowledge Haile's standing in the world of distance running by presenting him with this prestigious award on behalf of over 300 members of AIMS from around the globe."