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Argentine soccer star Lionel Messi has been voted the best athlete of the year in Latin America and the Caribbean.
Colombian athlete Catherine Ibarguen is the best female athlete and Uruguay’s national football outfit was given the award for the best team.
The Barcelona star Messi won with 38 votes, leaving behind Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, who got 32 votes and Uruguayan soccer player Luis Suarez, with 29 votes, reports Xinhua.
Ibarguen polled 48 votes, 13 more than Brazilian pole vaulter Fabiana Murer and Cuban discus thrower Yarelis Barrios, who was third with 16 votes.
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In the team category, Uruguayan soccer team won with 101 votes.
The media poll also chose 10 best athletes and they are: Bolt, Suarez, Murer, Uruguayan soccer player Diego Forlan, Brazilian swimmers Cesar Cielo Filho and Thiago Pereira, Cuban athletes Lazaro Borges and Barrios, Mexican female diver Paola Espinosa and Jamaican sprinter Yohan Blake.
