World President of AIMS Hiroaki Chosa presents AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Constantina Dita with her award during a presentation at the Tokyo Marathon Expo in Japan.
(c) AIMS

The outstanding Romanian athlete Constantina Dita has been awarded the top honour in world road running, the AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award, during a ceremony on Thursday 19th March 2009 at the Tokyo Marathon Expo, in Japan.

World President of AIMS Hiroaki Chosa presented the AIMS/ASICS Golden Shoe award, a world accolade from the Association of International Marathons and Distance Races (AIMS), prior to the Tokyo Marathon on Sunday 22nd March.

Constantina had an outstanding year in 2008, winning the gold medal for the marathon at the Beijing Olympics, and in the process becoming the oldest Olympic marathon champion ever at the age of 38 years and 7 months.

The AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Awards were founded in 1992 and are decided each year by way of nominations made by the member races of the world body The Association of International Marathons & Distance Races (AIMS). The membership totals some 260 races in over 85 countries covering every continent of the world.

Previous winners of the AIMS/ASICS World Athlete of the Year Award include Liz McColgan (Scotland), Uta Pippig (Germany), Tegla Loroupe (Kenya), Naoko Takahashi (Japan), Catherine Ndereba (Kenya) Paula Radcliffe (England), Mizuki Noguchi (Japan) and Lornah Kiplagat (Netherlands).

Hiroaki Chosa, World President of AIMS comments: "It is an honour to recognise today the considerable achievements of Constantina Dita. Constantina had an outstanding year last year and proved at the Olympics that she is an athlete of the highest calibre, therefore it is my pleasure to present her with this prestigious award on behalf of 260 members of AIMS from around the globe.”

Constantina Dita comments: "It is a fantastic feeling to be honoured in this way, and to join a list of such esteemed winners is very special indeed. I would just like to say thank you to everyone involved. I am happy to be here for all of this week’s events around the Tokyo Marathon, and I am looking forward to taking part in the 10K event."