He added: “When you get to be athlete of the year it means that all the hard work has paid off, so if I can win it for a sixth year means as much as the first one.”
Ayana, meanwhile, broke a record set 23 years earlier when she clocked 29 minutes 17.45 seconds in Rio.
The 25-year-old also won 5,000m bronze, and won the Diamond Race.
Canada’s Andre de Grasse, the 22-year-old who won 200m silver and 100m bronze in Rio, was named male rising star, while Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam, 22, won the female award.
Harry Marra won the IAAF Coaching Achievement Award after guiding Ashton Eaton to a second Olympic decathlon gold and Brianne Theisen Eaton to heptathlon bronze.
