Valerie Adams and Renaud Lavillenie are IAAF Athletes of the Year
Last Updated: 21/11/14 10:23pm
French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie and New Zealand's shot-put legend Valerie Adams have been named IAAF World Athletes of the Year.
Lavillenie set a new world indoor record of 6.16 metres in the Ukraine, won the Diamond League Race as well as at the European Championships and IAAF Continental Cup and was only beaten once in 22 competitions in 2014.
His victory ended a three-year run of success for Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who has won the title in five of the last six years - he was denied in 2010 by 800 metre star David Rudisha of Kenya.
"There can't have been a better year than 2014 and now I have the acknowledgement of the athletics family," said Lavillenie, who also took gold at London 2012.
"I think the world record contributed to the award, but I won other competitions too. I wasn't as good as Valerie, I lost one competition, but 21 out of 22 is not too bad in an event which is quite unpredictable."
Adams went one better in an unbeaten season, taking her win streak to 56 events including wins in the World Indoor Championships and Commonwealth Games.
"(This is) for me, my family, my country and all women shot-putters," added Adams, who is a double Olympic and four-time European champion.
"This is the icing on the cake for 2014. There's been a lot of pain but I love what I do, I love competing. I'm mentally strong and I have a high pain threshold so that makes it easier."
Friday's awards marked the first time that field event athletes had won both accolades and was also the first time that a male pole vaulter or a female thrower had won the World Athlete of the Year award.
There was also some success for Britain, with teenage multi-eventer Morgan Lake being named as one of two IAAF Rising Stars along with French 110 metres hurdler Wilhelm Belocian.
Lake, 17, achieved a unique double at the IAAF World Junior Championships in Eugene, Oregon, when she won the high jump and heptathlon while still competing as a youth against older rivals. Her heptathlon score of 6,148 points was also a world youth record.