Hutt Valley athletes Jonathan Wyatt and Nick Willis have won recognition at the Athletics New Zealand awards ceremony in Christchurch.

Wyatt was a natural choice for the men's distance athlete award, while Willis took out the junior men's athlete award for the second year running.

For Wyatt the award capped a year in which he has won a world title, set a New Zealand record and continued a record of competing with distinction at major championships.

Last month in Austria he took out his third world mountain running title, beating the best in the world by over three minutes on the uphill 12km course.

In July Wyatt became New Zealand's best-performed distance runner at the Manchester Commonwealth Games when he finished sixth in the men's marathon. Notably his 2hr 14min 12sec time was also a personal best.

During his build-up to Manchester, Wyatt also broke a long-standing distance mark in lowering the New Zealand best for the half marathon. His 1:02:52 in a thrilling head-to-head battle with Canterbury rival Phil Costley eclipsed the mark of Paul Smith that had stood for the best part of a decade.

Willis has not had the international profile of Wyatt this year, but his achievements have been no less notable.

The Lower Hutt teenager went within a whisker of winning a 1500 metres medal at the world junior championships in Jamaica in July, finishing fourth in a surging finish to the 1500m final.

His 3min 42.69sec in that race was a personal best and one of the fastest times by a New Zealander over the distance this year. Earlier in the year he had captured national under 20 titles over 800 metres and 3000 metres to consolidate the promise he had shown in the 2000-01 season.

Willis is now studying full-time at the University of Michigan in the United States.

Full awards list at http://www.athletics.org.nz/awards02a.html#a5