The 2009 World Athletes of the Year will be announced Sunday at the World Athletics Gala in Monaco. There's little doubt that Usain Bolt will repeat as the male Athlete of the Year on the strength of his record-breaking performance at the World Championships. But the women's award is another matter.

Finalists include the defending champion and three-time winner, Yelena Isinbayeva, along with Sanya Richards, Valerie Vili, Blanka Vlasic and Anita Wlodarczyk. Isinbayeva broke her own indoor and outdoor pole vault records this season. However, not only did she not take the gold at the World Championships, but she no-heighted. Can she be called the greatest athlete of the year when she fell flat at the year's premier event?

Wlodarczyk set a world mark while winning the hammer throw at Berlin. The other three also won world championships, with Richards, the 2006 Athlete of the Year, winning golds in the 400 and the 4 x 400 relay, and Vlasic posting eight of the year's top ten jumps, including the second-best of all time.

But if the award is for the most dominating athlete of 2009, my vote would go to Vili. The New Zealander was undefeated this year, winning the World Championship and the World Athletics Final, where she threw a personal best 21.07 meters (69 feet, 1 inch), the third-best effort dating back to 2000. Vili owns the year's top six throws and 10 of the top 12. Working against her is the fact that no thrower has ever won the women's award, while just two (javelin throwers Steve Backley and Jan Zelezny) have won on the men's side. Perhaps that bias will end this Sunday.

Photo: Valerie Vili shows off her gold medal at the 2009 World Championships. Stu Forster/Getty Images

Liu Xiang's comeback from his foot injury began well in September he ran the 110 hurdles in 13.15 seconds, finishing a fraction of a second behind Terrence Trammell. The ability to run stride-for-stride with the World Championship silver medalist seemed a good indication that Liu, the 2004 Olympic gold medalist, would again be competitive with the world's top sprint hurdlers. But it was only one race, and questions remained about his surgically-repaired Achilles tendon. Would it hold up under the rigors of full-time training and competition? Could he maintain his world class speed?

Liu's subsequent races, both run in poor weather, haven't answered those questions. He won his second race of the year in13.34 - running into a .9 meters-per-second wind - in October. He won again yesterday (Nov. 12), earning a gold medal at the Asian Championships. He was clocked in just 13.50 but competed in the rain, and slowed at the end when his victory was assured.

Liu's personal best is 12.88, a then-world record set in 2006. The best he managed during his injury-shortened 2008 season was 13.18. This year's world best is held by current world record-holder Dayron Robles (13.04). Again, Liu's 13.15 from this season is the best indicator that he is, literally, back on track.

Looking ahead to next year, fans of the 110 hurdles are eagerly awaiting a race between a fully healthy Liu and Robles. Such a match-up is likely at some point in 2010, but with no major outdoor championship on the calendar, it's not guaranteed.

The indoor season is another matter. Will the two go head-to-head in the 60-meter hurdles at the World Indoor Championships next March? Liu is the defending World Indoor champ, while Robles didn't make the final in the 2008 competition. Robles, however, owns a 60-meter personal best of 7.33 seconds, compared to Liu's 7.42.

The next major outdoor event is the 2011 World Championships. By then Liu will be 28, while Robles will be a few months shy of 25. Track fans can only hope that both will be in top shape for that race, and for other showdowns in the next few years.

Photo: Dayron Robles and Liu Xiang at the 2008 World Indoor Championships. Stu Forster/Getty Images

Jamaican sprinters have dominated international competitions in recent years, under the guidance of national senior head coach Glen Mills. Mills, most famous for his work with Usain Bolt, has retired as Jamaica's head coach after 22 years. He will, however, remain as the president of the Racers Track Club and, as such, will continue to coach Bolt.

Mills' track and field career spans more than 40 years. He began coaching high-level junior athletes in the early 70s and succeeded Herb McKenley as Jamaica's head coach in 1987. Since that time, Jamaican athletes have earned 33 Olympic medals (9 gold, 16 silver and 8 bronze) plus 71 World Championship medals (13 gold, 31 silver and 27 bronze).

Bolt was a promising 200-meter runner when he asked Mills to be his coach in 2004. Mills felt Bolt was well-suited to double in the 200 and 400, but Bolt wanted to run the 100. Mills and Bolt then made a deal - if Bolt could break Jamaica's 200-meter record, then he could begin running the 100. At the 2007 Jamaican National Championships Bolt won the 200 in 19.75 seconds, beating Donald Quarrie's 36-year-old mark of 19.86.

Since taking up the 100, Bolt has broken the world record three times and the 200 mark twice.

Like the best coaches in any sport, Mills is never satisfied with his athletes' performances; he always sees room for improvement. After Bolt shattered both sprint records in the 2008 Olympics, Mills famously declared that technical improvements would help Bolt run even faster in the following years. Bolt, of course, proved Mills correct by lowering the 100 and 200 records at this year's World Championships. With Mills remaining in Bolt's corner, don't be surprised if he lowers those marks further.

Photo: Ian Walton/Getty Images

Meb Keflezighi's victory in the New York marathon Sunday (Nov. 1) was the biggest men's marathon triumph by an American in at least seven years. Born in Eritrea, Keflezighi came to the U.S. with his family when he was 12. He surpassed another naturalized American, Moroccan-born Khalid Khannouchi, as the top U.S. men's marathon runner in 2004, when Keflezighi earned the Olympic silver medal in Athens.

But Americans have won few major marathons recently, even on native soil. Among the three major U.S. marathon events -- Boston, New York and Chicago -- Keflezighi's victory was only the fourth by a U.S. runner since 2000. Deena Kastor won in Chicago in 2005, while Khannouchi, the former men's world record-holder, was the Chicago winner in 2000 and 2002.

The 1990s were even worse, as no Americans won in either New York or Boston, while only Kristy Johnston (1994) and Linda Somers (1992) triumphed in Chicago. Keflezighi was the first American man to win in New York since Alberto Salazar in 1982. No woman has won the New York Marathon since Miki Gorman in 1977. The last U.S. victories in Boston came in 1985 (Lisa Larsen Weidenbach) and 1983 (Greg Meyer).

The Olympics and World Championships tell a similar story. Frank Shorter (1972) is the only American man to win an Olympic marathon gold medal since 1908. Keflezighi's silver medal in 2004 was the first U.S. Olympic marathon medal of any kind since Shorter's runner-up finish in 1976. American Joan Benoit won the first Olympic women's marathon in 1984, but Kastor's 2004 bronze is the only U.S. women's medal since. Marianne Dickerson, who took the silver in 1983, is the only American woman to win a World Championship marathon medal, while the men possess just two: Mark Plaatjes' gold in 1993 and Steve Spence's bronze in 1991.

Will the next ten years be any brighter for U.S. marathon runners? At the moment, the 34-year-old Keflezighi remains the top American hope. American runners haven't been close to medals at either the Olympics or World Championships the past two years, although Keflezighi missed the Beijing Games due to injury. Other U.S. hopes include Ryan Hall, who was tenth in Beijing, third in Boston this year and fourth in New York Sunday, and Dathan Ritzenhein, who finished ninth in the 2008 Olympics and an impressive third at the 2009 World Half Marathon Championships. On the women's side, Kara Goucher was third in both New York in 2008 and in Boston this year before placing tenth in the World Championships, just ahead of fellow American Desiree Davila in 11th.

Meb Keflezighi Photo: Mike Stobe/Getty Images

As soon as Rio de Janeiro was selected as the first South American host for an Olympic Games, in 2016, speculation began - in this blog and elsewhere - that an African nation could be in line to play host to the 2020 Olympics. Four years before the 2020 host is selected, several African countries are already gearing up to become the first nation on that continent to hold an Olympic Games. Rabat, Morocco will definitely make a bid for the 2020 Games. It's been reported that Egypt will also apply. But the very, very early African front-runner is South Africa.

Once a pariah country during its apartheid era, South African athletes were banned from several Olympic Games. A free South Africa, however, is very much a part of the family of athletic nations.

During the past 15 years, South Africa has played host to major world events in sports such as cricket and rugby. Next year the nation will play host to the FIFA World Cup, the world's biggest football (that's soccer, to us Americans) event.

Significantly, the International Olympic Committee will hold its 2011 general congress in Durban, South Africa. This will be a significant congress, in which the host city of the 2018 Winter Olympics will be announced. This will provide South Africa with plenty of exposure on the world stage, and give that country's officials an excellent opportunity to give IOC delegates a first-hand look at what South Africa has to offer.

These and perhaps other African nations will have to compete with many other countries for the 2020 Games - the U.S., certainly, will make a bid, after failing to land the 2016 Games - but the IOC will no doubt feel great pressure to hold the Olympics on a continent which has provided track and field, and other sports, with many outstanding champions.

Chinese hurdler Liu Xiang continued his comeback this week by winning the Chinese National Games championship.

Major track meets worldwide are generally scarce each year following the aptly-titled World Athletics Final. But this year, the National Games are an exception. An Olympic-style event in which track and field is just one of 33 sports, China currently holds these Games every four years. This 11^th version of the event concludes tomorrow (Oct. 28).

Liu, the former Olympic champion and world record holder, previously won China's 110-meter hurdles championships in 2001 and 2005. He won his third straight title on Sunday in a time of 13.34 seconds, running into a 0.9 meters-per-second headwind. This was Liu's second event of the season after missing more than a year due to injury. Liu ran 13.15 and finished a close second to Terrence Trammell in a Shanghai meet last month.

In another interesting result from the Chinese Games, 30-year-old Li Yanfeng (shown above) won the women's discus last Thursday with a 2009 world-leading toss of 66.40 meters (217 feet, 10 inches). Li is a solid thrower who's competed in two Olympic finals - placing seventh in 2008 - but with a previous personal best of 64.34/211-1, her effort last week was surprising. There is a history of throwers reaching their peak well past age 30 - four-time Olympic discus gold medalist Al Oerter set his personal best at age 43 - so it'll be interesting to see if Li's performance was a one-day exception, or if she continues to throw in the 66-meter range next year.

It'll also be interesting to see if Liu Xiang regains the form that put him on top of the 110 hurdles world and made him China's most popular athlete. Next year is the one year in every four without a major outdoor event (i.e., either an Olympics or a World Outdoor Championship), but the World Indoor Championships in March could provide him with a chance to regain international glory. Liu is the defending World Indoor 60-meter hurdles champ.

Photo: Li Yanfeng threw a 2009 world-best 66.40 meters to win the discus throw at the 2009 Chinese National Games. Harry How/Getty Images.

Amy Palmiero-Winters of Hicksville, NY, is USA Track and Field's athlete of the week after winning the Heartland "Spirit of the Prairie" 100-Mile Endurance Run on Oct. 11. That feat would be impressive enough, but Palmiero-Winters is a below-the-knee amputee who runs with the aid of a customized running prosthesis on her left leg.

Palmiero-Winters, 37, was injured in a 1994 motorcycle accident and eventually had her left leg was amputated below the knee. She didn't run again until 1997. In 2004 she finished second in her division in the Silver Strand Marathon, despite have a walking prosthesis on her left leg, and being five months pregnant with her second child. She placed third in her division in a triathlon the following year, still employing only the walking prosthesis..

Palmiero-Winters gained her running prosthesis, as well as a customized biking leg for use in triathlons, from A Step Ahead Prosthetics. She competes as a member of Team A Step Ahead, a group of disabled athletes.

At the Oct. 11 race, Palmiero-Winters posted the second fastest time in the event's history, finishing the 100 miles in 18 hours, 54 minutes and 13 seconds, with a 23-minute advantage over the race's runner-up. She's the first woman amputee to finish a 100-mile run.

Read more about Amy Palmiero-Winters and Team A Step Ahead on their respective Web sites.

The premier running event where I live, in southeast Michigan, is the annual Detroit Free Press Marathon. The event turned tragic this year when three runners died in last Sunday's race. The trio ranged in age from 26 to 65 and were all running in the 13.1-mile half marathon portion of the event.

According to a Detroit News article on Sunday's race, autopsies haven't confirmed the causes of death of the three Detroit runners, but cardiac arrest seems likely. One runner collapsed after crossing the finish line, while the other two were stricken between the 11- and 12-mile mark. All three received prompt medical attention and were treated with defibrillators.

All three were reportedly well-conditioned athletes. The 65-year-old had been running for 30 years. Nevertheless, some people, even top professional athletes, simply have hidden problems that don't show themselves until it's too late. I remember when Detroit Lions wide receiver Chuck Hughes collapsed on the football field after running a pass route in a 1971 game. At age 28, he'd suffered a fatal heart attack.

While deaths related to distance running are rare (although three other distance running deaths have been reported in the U.S. this month), these fatalities demonstrate that there is no such thing as a "casual" distance runner. Anyone engaging in distance training or running must do more than just "check with your doctor before beginning strenuous exercise." Distance runners must monitor their health as closely as possible, and must continue to do so throughout their running lives.

Additionally, amateur distance runners in particular must beware of the "Rocky" syndrome. In the first Rocky movie, the hero believes he can't win the fight, but he's determined to go the distance. Similarly, for many amateur runners simply finishing the race - going the distance - is their victory. While their goal is admirable, it shouldn't be attained at all costs. Amateur runners should always remain alert for physical warning signs, other than normal fatigue or muscle soreness. There's no shame in pulling up short and seeking medical attention and advice. Nobody knows whether any of the Detroit runners suffered warning signals before they collapsed. Still, if in doubt, it's better to cut your race short than to cut your life short.

Many track and field athletes find their niches after specializing in other sports earlier in life. Long jump record-holder Mike Powell's first love in high school was basketball. Yelena Isinbayeva was once a gymnast. Likewise, Eritrean distance runner Zersenay Tedese began competing as a cyclist. A bicycle, of course, can ride on a variety of surfaces, so it's appropriate that an ex-cyclist pulled off an unusual triple success this season, earning world championship medals on three different surfaces, including the gold medal in the Oct. 11 World Half Marathon Championships in Birmingham, UK.

Tedese placed third in the World Cross Country Championships in March, running across natural terrain in Amman, Jordan. He earned a silver medal on a standard track in August, finishing second in the 10,000 meters at the World Outdoor Championships in Berlin. Tedese - who also owns a 10,000-meter bronze medal from the 2004 Olympics - completed his triple triumph by winning his fourth consecutive Half Marathon/World Road Running title on Sunday, finishing in 59:35 (the 2006-07 events were called the World Road Running Championships, while the 2008-09 races were called the World Half Marathon Championships). Kenya's Benard Kiprop Kipyego was second on Sunday (59:59) and American Dathan Ritzenhein third (1:00:00).

Women's champion Mary Keitany's problem wasn't running the half marathon distance on Sunday, but overcoming immobility the day before, when she and eight others were stuck in an elevator for 50 minutes. Keitany's confinement didn't affect her running on Sunday as the Kenyan won in 1:06.36, just shy of Lornah Kiplagat's world record of 1:06.25. The Birmingham crowd witnessed an excellent race but were disappointed when Great Britain's Paula Radcliffe, a three-time World Half Marathon champion, had to withdraw earlier in the week due to tonsillitis.

Philes Ongori earned the women's silver (1:07:38) after sprinting past Ethiopia's Aberu Kebede (1:07:39).

With the selection of Rio de Janeiro as the site of the 2016 Olympics, and Chicago's early elimination from the final vote on Friday, finger-pointing became the sport of choice for many American athletic officials last weekend.

The International Olympic Committee selected Rio as the first South American city to ever host the Olympic Games, beating out bids from Tokyo, Madrid and Chicago. Oddsmakers had pegged Chicago as the favorite after U.S. president Barack Obama agreed to address the IOC on Friday. Nevertheless, Chicago was the first city eliminated from the four-city competition.

With the exception of a few political rivals, fingers weren't pointed at Mr. Obama. Some United States Olympic Committee members the shakeup among the USOC's top management over the past year. Others cited a USOC announcement in July that the organization wanted to create on Olympic television network - an ill-timed sentiment the USOC soon retracted.

Other reasons were given for Chicago's defeat, and more speculation ensued. But the failure to ever hold an Olympic Games in South America meant that the serious Brazilian effort was always going to generate plenty of interest, regardless of how well the USOC and Chicago presented the U.S. case. After all, the Olympic symbol of five interlocking rings is supposed to represent the world's continents. But previous Olympics had only been held in Europe, Asia, North American and Australia. By awarding the 2016 bid to South American, the Olympics are one step closer to fulfilling their goal of global representation. From a neutral viewpoint, even we Americans should view such outreach as positive, even while we're disappointed that the 2016 Games won't be held in the U.S.

Even while the USOC reevaluates its efforts, many are no doubt already looking ahead to 2020. Will Chicago, or another U.S. city, make a bid for those Olympic Games? Will a city in Africa, the final continent without an Olympics to its name, step forward? As always, the next selection process should be interesting.