HavanaCuba’s 2005 World 800m champion Zulia Calatayud was selected the Latin American sportswoman of 2006, according to the annual survey organized by the Latin American News Agency Prensa Latina.
After collecting votes from 115 media organizations from 19 countries of four continents, the 27-year-old runner received 45 votes to narrowly beat Mexico’s Lorena Ochoa, the world’s no.1 female golfer.
Jamaican sprinter Sherone Simpson finished third in the voting.
“I am obviously very happy and surprised. This is the first time and it is one more distinction to our sporting career,” commented the two-time Olympic finalist when she heard the results.
“I would like to thank all the media who voted for me and also congratulate Lorena, Sherone and the other women who deserve this award as well,” she added.
Calatayud won 11 of the 15 800m races she entered in 2006, including the World Athletics Final in Stuttgart and the IAAF World Cup in Athens, as well as the Central American and Caribbean Games in Cartagena, Colombia.
“It is difficult to be chosen as the best Cuban sportswoman of a year and it’s is even more as the Latin American. I always do my best and this is a good reward for all the sacrifice and energy spent in training,” she continued.
Calatayud succeeds her countrywoman and team-mate Osleidys Menendez, the World and Olympic javelin champion and record holder, who received the award in 2004 and 2005. She also won in 2001.
“This award also goes to my coach (Faustino Hernández). We are a team and hope to continue obtaining great results for Cuba and our region.”
She also expects to be named the Cuban sportswoman of the year. The results will be announced next week.
The annual Prensa Latina survey has been held since 1964 and the first recipient of the award was an athlete, Cuba’s 1964 100m Olympic silver medallist Enrique Figuerola.
Other past winners from athletics have been Cuba’s Alberto Juantorena, Ana Fidelia Quirot, Iván Pedroso and Javier Sotomayor, Mexico’s Daniel Bautista and Ana Guevara, Colombia’s Alvaro Mejías, Brazil’s Joao Carlos de Oliveira and Joaquín Carvalho Cruz.
The men’s trophy goes to Venezuela’s left-handed pitcher Johan Santana (Minnesota Twins), winner of the USA Major League Baseball Cy Young award for the second time.
The Brazilians, who reconquered the men’s world title in Japan, were presented with the team award.
Javier Clavelo Robinson for the IAAF