The 2003 Steve Cram Awards

By Steve Cram BBC Sport

Yes, it's that time of year again.

This being the internet, my awards don't require attendance at a glamorous ceremony, nor the dusting off of the old DJ or sparkly dress.

But don't for a moment think that the 2003 Crammies are in any way less prestigious for that...

Best male athlete

El Guerrouj celebrates his world 1500m title

Tough category, this one. Initially I couldn't decide between Kenenisa Bekele and Hicham El Guerrouj.

But I'm plumping for El Guerrouj, because of the way he performed and conducted himself at the World Championships, despite all the pressure he was under.

A lot of us questioned his ability to run both the 1500m and the 5,000m, but as it turned out the latter was one of the highlights of the championships.

Best female athlete

Because of what she has achieved, and what she's doing for the sport, the award goes to Carolina Kluft.

It has been a great year for the new names coming through, and Kluft will be the biggest name in athletics for the next few years.

Best young athlete

I have to go for Kenenisa Bekele.

His performance at the world cross country championships was phenomenal.

It's a hell of a tough race at the best of times, but he absolutely walked it. He won the double.

We were all waiting to see of he could back that up on the track, and then he did - taking 10,000m gold in Paris and nearly repeating the trick in the 5,000m.

Best one-off male performance

I'll have this as a race rather than an individual, because the 3,000m steeplechase at the Worlds had me open-mouthed.

I thought to myself afterwards - what the hell have I just watched?

I've never seen a race at a major championships run like that. It was a one-off race and I don't think we'll ever see anything like it ever again.

Best one-off female performance

No questions about this one - Paula Radcliffe winning the London Marathon and smashing her own world record.

Paula has been in incredible form whenever she's run, but this was the highlight of her year and mine.

Favourite moment of the year

Meeting Hicham El Guerrouj in a bar in Paris at 5am, about eight hours after he had come so close to taking 5,000m gold.

It reaffirmed my faith that athletes these days can have a good time as well as competing bloody hard.

I had thought that most of them don't know how to relax and let their hair down, but he proved otherwise.

I was just leaving when he came in, so I stayed and had a couple of drinks with him.

Biggest disappointment of the year

The 100m final at the Worlds.

I don't mean that because it was not a tight race, but because it was one of the poorest quality 100m I can remember at a major event.

You always look to the 100m to lift the whole thing, but it was a big disappointment.

Nobody stepped up and did something special, least of all Dwain Chambers.

Hope for future

They have to sort out the starting procedures for the sprints.

It was farcical this year, whether at Crystal Palace, Glasgow or Gateshead.

Tantrums in Paris, music coming through the loudspeakers at the wrong time - it was all going wrong this season.