17 February 2010

European Athletics has announced Great Britain’s Jessica Ennis as the European Athlete of the Month for January.

Ennis, the 2009 World Championships Heptathlon gold medallist and the 2007 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winner, ran 7.95 for a British 60m hurdles indoor record in Glasgow on January 30.

She also cleared 1.94m in the High Jump on the same day, a personal best indoors and just one centimetre away from the British record.

Ennis, along with Croatia’s Blanka Vlasic, is also among this year’s nominees for the World Comeback of the Year category at the prestigious Laureus Awards.

The European Athlete of the Month initiative was launched in January 2007 and is designed to recognise outstanding performers at all levels of the sport in Europe.

European Athletics names a male and female winner each month and features the athlete on the European Athletics website. Selections are based on votes by the public, the media and a panel of European Athletics experts, with each counting for 33.3 percent of the final vote.