03 January 2013

Great Britain’s Jessica Ennis is the most successful female athlete of 2012, according to worldwide athletics database website All-Athletics.com. Ennis, who won heptathlon gold at the London Olympic Games, was tied with Jamaican sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce for the accolade of 2012 All-Athletics.com World Athlete of the Year and was the sole winner of the All-Athletics.com Female European Athlete of the Year.

Ennis was also named as both the World and European Multi-Event Athlete of the Year after a memorable 2012 for the 26 year old.

The All-Athletics.com Athletes of the Year are decided based on the database’s Overall Rankings for 2012. Usain Bolt, who retained his Olympic titles over 100m, 200m and the 4x100m relay, was the winner of the male World Athlete of the Year award whilst French pole vaulter Renaud Lavillenie was male European Athlete of the Year.

Following his historic 5,000m and 10,000m distance double at the 2012 Olympics, Mo Farah has been named as All-Athletics.com’s male Distance Track Runner of the Year. Farah was also awarded the title of European Distance Track Runner of the Year whilst fellow Brit Jo Pavey was given the equivalent female prize in recognition of her finishing seventh in both the 5,000m and 10,000m at the London Games and winning 10,000m silver at the European Championships in Helsinki in July.

Christine Ohuruogu was crowned female European Sprinter of the Year after winning a dramatic silver medal over 400m in London to add to the gold she won in Beijing four years earlier. 2011 World 400m hurdles champion Dai Greene was fourth place in London and has been named as the male European Hurdler of the Year by All-Athletics.com.

After a 2012 season in which he clinched a bronze medal at the World Indoor Championships in Istanbul and ran an 800m personal best of 1:43.77 to finish eighth in the Olympic final, Andrew Osagie has been awarded the title of male European middle distance runner of the year.

In the Overall Countries Rankings for 2012, Great Britain and Northern Ireland remained in fourth place on both the men’s and women’s sides as the USA continued to dominate. The Great Britain and Northern Ireland athletics team finished fourth in the medal table at London 2012 and the men’s and women’s teams also finished second to Russia in the All-Athletics.com European Countries Rankings.