Morocco's El Guerrouj and S. Africa's Cloete best athletes of the year

Morocco's Four-time 1,500m World champion Hicham El Guerrouj was made Sunday best athlete of the year for the third time in a row, while South African world high jump champion Hestrie Cloete was confirmed as women's champion this year.

El Guerrouj bagged US$130,000 Sunday although he pulled out of because of fatigue of the second and final day of the World Athletics Final. The Moroccan champ, who was suffering from fatigue and a high temperature on his 29th birthday, had already accumulated enough points to win US$100,000 as overall men's champion plus US$30,000 for finishing top of the 1,500 rankings.

"The best athlete title is a pride and is stimulating for gold winning in the Athena Olympic games," El Guerrouj told Moroccan news agency MAP. Saaeed Saif Shaheen of Qatar was the only man who could have overtaken El Guerrouj but he would have needed to break the world 3,000m steeplechase record. "I was looking forward to competing here but this morning I was feeling unwell," El Guerrouj told a news conference.

"I had a bad cold after Friday." Hestrie Cloete was made as women's champion although she also did not appear in the Stade Louis II on Sunday. Cloete cleared 2.01m to win her competition on Saturday and pull clear of her nearest rival, Sweden's world heptathlon champion Carolina Kluft. Double world sprint champion Kelli White could have overtaken Cloete if she had won with a personal best of 10.77 in the 100m.