Gay & Defar are athletes of year

Gay (left) and Defar pose with their awards in Monaco

American sprinter Tyson Gay and Ethiopian distance runner Meseret Defar have been named World Athletes of the Year at a ceremony in Monte Carlo.

Gay, 25, won the 100m, 200m and 4x100m at the World Championship while Defar, 23, won the 5000m title in Osaka, after setting a world record in June.

"I think I need the world 100m record to go down in history along with Carl Lewis and Maurice Greene," said Gay.

Defar added: "I broke the world record by eight seconds, that was amazing."

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Asafa Powell, who posted a 100m world record of 9.74sec this year and Blanka Vlasic, whose high jump clearance of 2.07m was the third best ever, claimed the Performance of the Year awards.

Paula Radcliffe, who returned to action after a 22-month hiatus to win the New York Marathon, and Haile Gebrselassie, who set a new men's world record for the event, were given Inspirational Awards.