Jamaica's Usain Bolt, as expected, walked away with the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Male athlete of the year award at the World Athletics Gala in Monte Carlo on Sunday.

There was little doubt, in anyone's mind, here or abroad, that he was the star of the Beijing Games, setting the 'Bird's Nest' Stadium alight with his electrifying world record runs of 9.69 seconds in the 100 metres final and 19.30 seconds in the 200 metres final. In addition he had clocked the world leading times in both events leading into the Games.

Hot favourite

Bolt was also the hot favourite for another title, that of Perfor-mance of the Year. Leading into the Gala, there were only three finalists, Bolt's two world record runs and Haile Gebreselassie's marathon record, 2:03:59, set in Berlin, Germany, on September 28. However, before the awards, the IAAF issued a release which said "... considering the incredible depth of candidates for the Performance of the Year award, the International Athletics Foundation panel decided to extend the number of finalists to the top five."

I think that was a bit unfair to those who had already been named as finalists and would have been thinking of the prize. The fact that the winner was not even among the original finalists, surely, would have left a bitter taste in the mouth.

I have seen the world record 110 metres hurdles run by Cuba's Dayron Robles on television and it was a superb bit of hurdling. As technically perfect as one could get. He glided over the obstacles, barely touching two of the 10.

That was, however, at a Grand Prix meet, a one-off race. That surely cannot compare with the performance of a man, who destroyed his rivals after running eight races in six days and smashed the 200 metres record, a mark which a lot of track and field enthusiasts thought would have lasted for many more years.

There have been many outstanding athletes, over the years, who have done well in grand prix races but fail when it came to the real test, the Olympic Games or IAAF World Championships. Performances at the top meets, where all the athletes are competing under the same conditions, must take precedence over all others.

Walker Cup, Manning Cup finals

Lovers of schoolboy football will have a real feast at the National Stadium on Saturday. The Walker Cup final, Calabar High versus Excelsior High, which was aborted some weeks ago at Constant Spring, will kick off at 1 p.m. Then in a big showdown at 3 p.m. old rivals, defending champions Jamaica College and St. George's College meet for the Manning Cup.

The last two teams have had many great battles over the years and Saturday's clash is expected to be a humdinger following their exciting semi-final wins at Harbour View last Saturday.

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