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December 2009
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Farah & Vlasic are European Athletes of the Month of January |
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17.02.2009 |
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Croatian wonder-girl Blanka Vlasic stamped her
authority on women's High Jump with a great start to
the 2009 season. Photo by Picture Alliance
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European Athletics is pleased to announce that British middle distance star Mo Farah and Croatian High Jumping star Blanka Vlasic have been selected as the European Athletes of the Month for January.
Farah, the 2006 SPAR European Cross Country champion had a mixed season in 2008, and failed to reach his goal of making the Olympic 5,000m final in Beijing.
Determined to make amends, he spent a large proportion of the winter training at high altitude in Kenya on route to picking up the silver medal at the SPAR European Cross Country Championships in Brussels in December before returning to altitude for an attempt at the European Indoor 3,000m title in Torino in March.
Showing the obvious positive effects of his African training camp, Farah returned to Europe one day before the annual Glasgow international indoor match between Britain, Germany, Sweden and the USA and led the 3,000m from gun to tape to smash the British record with a time of 7:40.99, nearly three seconds faster than the next European has run in 2009.
Vlasic too had a disappointing end to 2008, loosing her long winning streak at the moment she least wanted to in Beijing to take the Olympic silver medal and then after winning the first six Golden League competitions she was beaten at the last attempt costing her a share of $1m in the process.
Undeterred, the 1.92m tall reigning World Champion continued her unprecedented streak of 2m plus jumps with a 2.03m opening to her 2008 season in Rijeka to top the European lists for January.
The 25-year-old, who is a model of consistency and has been over 2m in her last 40 competitions, will now look to win her first European Athletics Indoor title in Torino in March.
The runners up in the men's poll were Greek Long Jumper Louis Tsatoumas and Russian High Jumper Ivan Ukhov while Spanish hurdler Josephine Onyia and Portuguese walker Vera Santos were the runners up in the women's poll.
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 will name a male and female winner each month and feature 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% of the final vote.
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Mo Farah takes the top position after
breaking the longstanding British record in
3000m at the Glasgow Internation meet.
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Previous Winners:
| Month |
Male
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Country |
Female |
Country |
| December |
Sergey Lebid
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UKR |
Hilda Kibet
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NED |
| November |
Rui Pedro Silva
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POR
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Paula Radcliff
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GBR |
| October |
Martin Fagan |
IRL |
Lornah Kiplagat |
NED
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September
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Andrey Silnov
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RUS
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Barbora Spotakova
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CZE |
July
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Martyn Rooney
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GBR
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Yelena Isinbayeva
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RUS |
June
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Phillips Idowu |
GBR
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Blanca Vlasic
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CRO |
May
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Andreas Thorkildsen |
NOR
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Barbora Špotáková |
CZE |
April
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Selim Bayrak
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TUR
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Elvan Abeylegesse |
TUR |
March
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Stefan Holm
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SWE
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Yelena Soboleva
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RUS |
February
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Viktor Roethlin |
SUI
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Susanna Kallur
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SWE |
January
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Nelson Evora |
POR
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Susanna Kallur
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SWE |
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