15 October 2007

The winners of the Waterford Crystal European Athletes of the Year and European Athletics Rising Stars were presented with their awards at the Mediterranean Conference Centre in Malta this weekend.

In front of over 300 invited guests, Croatian High Jumper Blanka Vlasic and Finnish Javelin Thrower Tero Pitkämäki, received the top awards of European male and female Athlete of the Year while British Hepthatlete Jessica Ennis and Italian Long Jumper Andrew Howe, received the inaugural European Athletics male and female Rising Star awards from European Athletics President Hansjörg Wirz.

The winners were selected after an on-line poll on the European Athletics website, voted for by thousands of European Athletics fans, Member Federations, the public and a panel of experts.