Jamaica Amateur Athletics Association (JAAA) have awarded Olympic champions Usain Bolt and Melaine Walker their 2008 Male and Female Athletes of the Year.

Usain Bolt (Beijing 100m, 200m, 4x100m Gold and World Record timing) was lauded accolades of awards this year after his record breaking performance at the recent Beijing Olympics.

He can add this title to his strings of awards such as the ‘International Association of Athletics Federation’ and ‘Central American and Caribbean’ award.

As for Melanie Walker (Beijing 400m Gold, OR timing and 4th fastest ever), she fended other notable Jamaican female athletes such as Olympic Beijing gold medalist such as Shelly Ann Fraser and Veronica Campbell-Brown, for the ‘Female Athlete of the Year’ award.

Other awards at the JAAA event includes Usain Bolt’s coach Glen Mills receiving ‘Coach of the Year’ award, former 1976 Olympic 200m champion Donald Quarrie was awarded for his administrative contributions, and athletes such as Sherone Simpson, Nesta Carter, Asafa Powell and Michael Frater was recognized for their achievements at the Beijing Olympics.

Jamaican Athletics are going places these days.

Now they’ve additional J$1 million funding from Jamaica United Relief Association based in the United States, and the city of Glasgow has extended an invitation for the Jamaican national team to train at their facilities for their 2012 Olympic Games preparation.