The president of the International Amateur Athletic Federation, Primo Nebiolo, yesterday denied allegations that he had ordered last year's Athletes of the Year poll to be rigged. The allegations quoted the former IAAF press chief Christopher Winner as saying Nebiolo had told him to fix the poll by international journalists before the December awards ceremony, denying Sally Gunnell the accolade of female athlete of the year. But Nebiolo said: "I don't understand. I don't know what's going through his head. To say these things were arranged for the ceremony is stupid and false. My relations with [Winner] were very good and I was very close to him even if he did have some personal problems." When this year's awards were announced yesterday, Britain's world record breaker Jonathan Edwards and the American sprint star Gwen Torrence were named athletes of the year.
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