Klochkova Named Ukraine’s Best Athlete

KIEV, Ukraine, December 23. YANA Klochkova, Ukraine's multi world and Olympic champions, was voted that country's "Athlete of the Year" in a nationwide poll conducted by the association of sports journalists.

Klochkova was the overwhelming winner for the second time in three years. She was also named the country's top athlete in 2000 after winning two Olympic gold medals in Sydney.

Versatile and a fierce competitor, Klochkova won three gold medals at the World Short Course Championships in Moscow in April, both medleys and the 400m freestyle.
Then she added two more titles at the European Short Course Championships in Riesa, Germany, earlier this month, winning the 200 IM for the fourth year in a row and the 400 IM, the event in which she holds both the long course and short course world records.

Ruslan Ponomaryov, 19, who won the FIDE world chess title, finished a distant second; boxer Vladimir Klitschko, the World Boxing Organization (WBO) champion, was third.

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