Eaton, Dibaba voted best IAAF’s best for 2015

(Picture courtesy IAAF)

Bob Mathias(1948 & 1952) and Daley Thompson(1980 & 1984) remain the only two athletes in the history of the Olympic Games to win the gold medal in Decathlon in back to back editions. These days however, whenever there is a debate about the best practitioner of the multi disciplinary event, a certain is unanimously deemed the ‘greatest ever’. Earlier this week thus, the claim of American Ashton Eaton to the aforementioned title became even stronger.

He was named the IAAF's male athlete of the year for 2015 on Thursday after breaking the world record to win gold at the world championships.

Eaton, the 27-year-old husband of Canadian heptathlon star Brianne Theisen-Eaton, scored 9,045 points in Beijing in his first decathlon in two years to beat his own world mark. He finished well ahead of silver medallist Damian Warner of Canada, who had 8,695 points.

Talking about his accomplishment, he said in a statement, “Athletes spend the most vigorous years of human life, arguably called the 'best years', working to hone their abilities.”

“I'm grateful and thankful to the IAAF (track and field's world governing body) for excellent competitions, the canvases that allow us to display our work."

Eaton beat the likes of Usain Bolt to win the award

Interestingly this year Eaton wasn't the favourite to land the award but he eventually warden off competition from Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who landed his 11th world championship gold medal this year, and American triple jumper Christian Taylor.

Talking about the same, he added, ”I did not beat Usain and Christian, my work simply differed in design. They are some of the most talented and beautiful performers of all time. I'm flattered to be among them.”

Amongst other winners from the night, Genzebe Dibaba of Ethiopia was bestowed with the corresponding honour in the women’s category after producing some stellar performances throughout the year.

The Ethiopian broke the women's 1,500 world record in July in Monaco with a time of three minutes 50.07 seconds.

She also captured the 1,500 world title in Beijing and took the bronze medal in the 5,000.

“After being a finalist and narrowly missing out on this award one year ago, I am very proud to be recognized by the fans and experts of our sport,” said Dibaba.

Interestingly the awards, which are usually handed out at the IAAF's annual gala dinner in Monaco were cancelled this year due to the doping scandal which rocked the sport recently.