BRUSSELS – Belgian sprinter Kim Gevaert has been named sports personality of 2004 in a referendum by Flemish national television VRT and the newspaper Het Nieuwsblad.

Gevaert, who competed for the Belgian team at the Athens Olympics, was voted by a jury of journalists and by phone votes from the public on Sunday evening.

The 26-year-old, who was an award-winning classical pianist until she took up athletics at the age of 15, is an icon in Belgium, thanks to her sprinting times and her good looks.

Last March, at the World Indoor Championships in Athletics she came 4/100ths of a second behind three-times champion Gail Denvers.

Gevaert won the Sports Personality ‘Victor’ trophy for gaining 28 points, the maximum number available, beating the head of the Belgian Olympic team, ex-judo competitor, Robert Van De Wally, who scored 16 points in the voting.

Cyclist Tom Boonen came third with 13 points, football coach Eric Gerets came fourth with nine points and cyclist Axel Merckx fifth with six.

Last year, the trophy went to tennis star Kim Clijsters.

Gymnast Aagje Vanwalleghem was voted ‘Best Hope of the Year’, ahead of cross-country cyclist Kevin Pauwels and footballer Anthony Vanden Borre.

[Copyright Expatica 2005]

Subject: Belgian news