Federer and Henin take top prizes at Laureus awards
Roger Federer and Justine Henin take top prizes at Laureus world sports awards.
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Monday, 18, Feb 2008 04:37
Tennis stars Roger Federer and Justine Henin have taken the top prizes at the Laureus world sports awards in St Petersburg, Russia.
World number one Federer claimed his fourth consecutive world sportsman of the year trophy after taking his fifth straight Wimbledon title last year to equal Bjorn Borg's record.
And Henin, who in winning the French and US Open tournaments equalled Martina Hingis' ten-year-old record of ten titles in a season, was named world sportswoman of the year for the first time.
The South African rugby union team were named world team of the year after their 15-6 defeat of England in the Rugby World Cup final concluded an unbeaten tournament and British athlete Paula Radcliffe took the comeback athlete of the year prize after returning to victorious action following the birth of her second child.
After an astonishing season in which he came within a whisker of winning the formula one drivers' championship, Lewis Hamilton took the world breakthrough of the year award, having taken the record for the most F1 race wins - four - in a debut season.
Esther Vergeer took the world sportsperson of the year with a disability prize, while US skateboarder Shaun White won the award for world action sportsperson.
Pole vault legend Sergey Bubka took the lifetime achievement prize with former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound taking the 'Spirit of Sport' award and Sean and Brendan Tuohey - of charitable trust PeacePlayers International - claiming the 'Sport for Good' prize.
The awards were announced in the prestigious Mariinsky Theatre in St Petersburg, with Russian president Vladimir Putin in attendance.