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Monaco -Triple Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt and Russia's polevault queen Yelena Isinbayeva were confirmed as IAAF athletes of the year for 2008 on Sunday.
The 22-year-old, world-record breaking Bolt captured the 100m, 200m and 4x100m gold in Beijing where Isinbayeva held the Bird's Nest stadium enthralled when she defended her Olympic title with a world record 5.05m.
"He is invincible," said IAAF president Lamine Diack when asked to describe Jamaican sensation Bolt who became the third sprinter in succession to win the best athlete award after compatriot Asafa Powell (2006) and America's Tyson Gay (2007).
Isinbayeva, a resident of Monaco, was delighted with her award.
"I'm very proud and this is more beautiful than 2004 and 2005 and it proves that I have overcome all the difficulties I faced in 2006 and 2007."
She also paid tribute to Bolt.
"Mentally and physically, he is a fantastic athlete," she said.
Bolt repaid the compliment.
"Looking at her, she makes the polevault look so easy," he said.
Cuba's Dayron Robles, the Olympic 110m hurdles champion and world record holder, won the male performance of the year award while Tirunesh Dibaba of Ethiopia and Barbora Spotakova of the Czech Republic shared the female performance award.
