PARIS, France (CMC):

Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt and Yelena Isinbayeva, the Russian pole vault star, have been voted the International Sports Press Association's (AIPS) 2008 Athletes of the Year.

Both emerged as stars out of the Beijing Olympic Games in August and an online poll that attracted the votes of 571 journalists, from 96 countries and regions, voted them clear winners of the awards.

The Spanish football team, winners of the 2008 European Championship in June, picked up the Team-of-the-Year award.

Earned 1,395 points

They earned 1,395 points for landing their first major football title in 44 years and won ahead of Jamaica's Olympic men's sprint relay team (1,154), Champions League winners Manchester United (769) and the United States Olympic basketball team (597).

Bolt, a triple Olympic sprint gold medallist in Beijing, all in world records, repelled a strong challenge from American swimming star Michael Phelps to land the men's award.

He tallied 1,673 points in the poll to defeat Phelps (1,557), who made history by winning eight gold medals at the Water Cube in Beijing.

Stunning world record

Bolt ran a stunning world-record time of 9.69 seconds to easily win the men's 100 metres and then shattered Michael Johnson's formidable 200-metre world record at 19.30 seconds.

The 6-foot-5-inch Bolt, who turned 22 during the Beijing Games, went on to capture his third gold by joining former world 100-metre record-holder Asafa Powell and other Jamaican teammates Michael Frater and Nesta Carter to set a third world record in the 4x100-metre relay, in 37.10 seconds.

Spain's tennis star Rafael Nadal came third with 444 points, edging Manchester United's football star Cristiano Ronaldo (401) and Britain's new Formula One champion with Grenadian roots, Lewis Hamilton (275).

This is the latest in the growing list of Athlete of the Year accolades for Bolt.

He previously won the prestigious IAAF Male Athlete of the Year award last month in Monaco, Central America and Caribbean Athlete of the Year, Jamaica's Athlete of the Year, the BBC Overseas Sports Personality award, the Champion of Champions 2008 label for the French magazine L'Equipe, Track & Field News Male Athlete of the Year and the Eurosport Personality of the Year.

Isinbayeva competed unbeaten outdoors in 2008 and repeated as Olympic champion in Beijing with a vault of 5.05 metres.

The Russian dominated the poll with 1,723 points, easily topping Kenya's 18-year-old 800-metre sensation Pamela Jelimo (631).

Serbian tennis player Jelena Jankovic (583) finished third after she moved atop the WTA rankings.