Yulimar Rojas Tokyo 2020. Photo: Taken from Gettty Images

The International Association of Sports Journalists (AIPS) of America declared

, Telesur reports.

Rojas, world record holder in Tokyo with a record of 15.76 meters, reached eight votes that

, who owns two, AIPS said in a statement.

The disciple of Cuban long jumper Iván Pedroso, in addition to being a winner of the Diamond League circuit, also registered a record of 15.43 on indoor track, and was among the finalists for the Best Female Athlete of 2021 award for World Athletics.

Messi, for his part, won his seventh Ballon d'Or and became the leading scorer for the eighth time in the Spanish Football League;

Merits that -according to Telesur- conditioned him to overcome in the shipwrecks the American swimmer Caleb Dressel, deserving of five tickets, and the Ecuadorian road cyclist Richard Carapaz, with three.

The Argentine men's soccer squad was the winner of the title for best annual team, a merit that was discussed with the Venezuelan U-23 baseball team.

To choose the members of each candidacy - AIPS declares - the merits of those proposed by the respective National Associations during 2021 were taken into account;

and after a purifying process, the final vote was taken.

The document published by AIPS highlights that 21 countries from America participated in this selection, including Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, the Dominican Republic, Suriname, Uruguay and Venezuela.

What an amazing year we've had:

Best Female Athlete of 2021 thanks to the vote of the continent's sports journalists by @aips_america

You are part of this fantastic story 🇻🇪

I love and admire you!

pic.twitter.com/SmtoDXUikC

— Yulimar Rojas (@TeamRojas45) December 28, 2021

(Taken from Granma)