Iranian speed climber Reza Alipour has been crowned the 2017 International World Games Association (IWGA) Athlete of the Year.

Alipour, nicknamed the 'Persian Cheetah', received 90,790 votes in the contest with second place going to Ukrainian powerlifter Larysa Soloviova, who scored 90,036.

Speed skater Fabriana Arias from Colombia finished third with 48,014 votes.

Reza Alipour did not only win The World Games title in Speed Climbing in July 2017, he also holds the World Record in this discipline.

The 23-year-old faced his final race at the Games alone – his competitor had a false start – but was able to keep himself together and finish with the fastest time, 5.57.

 His medal was the first ever gold medal for Iran at The World Games.

A total of 21 athletes, all of whom competed at The World Games last summer, were nominated for the Athlete of the Year vote.

Last year, Muaythai fighter Sofia Olofsson (Sweden) won the title Athlete of the Year with 15,816 votes. She received her award in an award ceremony at the SportAccord Convention.