Ashton Eaton and Genzebe Dibaba have won the World Athlete of the Year awards for the first time.

Eaton - the first decathlete to win the prize - broke the world record with a score of 9,045 to claim a second successive World Championships gold in Beijing in August.

The 27-year-old American also clocked a decathlon-record 400 metres time of 45 seconds in the Chinese capital and has beaten off competition from legendary sprinter Usain Bolt and world triple jump champion Christian Taylor to win the award.

Dibaba has also been rewarded for a stellar 2015 in which she broke the 1500m world record and won gold at the World Championships. 

The 24-year-old Ethiopian set a new 1500m record mark of 3:50.07 in Monaco before going on to top the podium in Beijing. 

Dibaba also set a new indoor world record of 14:18.86 over 5000m, then secured a World Championships bronze over the same distance.

She was shortlisted for the top athlete award along with 200m world champion and 100m Beijing silver medalist Dafne Schippers and hammer world champion Anita Wlodarczyk.