Federer, Holmes win Laureus awards

ESTORIAL, Forjical Tuesday (AFP) Switzerland's triple 2004 Grand Slam tennis champion Roger Federer won the top male individual prize here Monday at the sixth annual Laureus World Sports Awards ceremony.

Federer fought off competition for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year award from Michael Phelps, winner of six Olympic swimming gold medals in Athens, Morocco's 1,500 and 5,000m Olympic champion Hicham El Guerrouj, and America's six-time Tour de France cycling winner Lance Armstrong.

Also nominated were two motor racing aces, Germany's seven-time Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and Italy's Valentino Rossi, for his fourth world MotoGP championship. "My main ambitions now are to win the French Open for the first time and to stay as the world number one," Federer said.

British middle-distance runner Kelly Holmes, winner of the 800 and 1500 metres gold medals at last year's Athens Olympics, won the World Sportswoman of the Year award.

She was up against Russia's Olympic pole vault winner Yelena Isinbayeva, Sweden's heptathlon gold medallist Carolina Kluft, Holland's Leontien Zijlaard-van Moorsel, the most successful cyclist in Olympic history, Russia's 17-year-old Wimbledon tennis champion Maria Sharapova and Swedish golfing great Annika Sorenstam.

Greece, shock winners at Euro 2004, were named world team of the year while the Boston Red Sox, who last year won baseball's World Series for the first time in 86 years, won the newly created Spirit of Sport Award.

The award for World Newcomer of the Year went to China's Liu Xiang, who became the first Chinese man to win a track athletics medal in Olympic history when he won the 110 metres hurdles in Athens.

Italian racing driver Alessandro Zanardi, who completed a full touring car season last year after losing both legs in a racing accident in 2001, won the World Comeback of the Year award.

The winners were decided by the Laureus World Sports Academy, a jury of 40 legends of sport that included Germany's three-time Wimbledon champion Boris Becker, England cricket great Ian Botham and Romanian gymnast Nadia Comaneci.