European Athletics President Svein Arne Hansen presented the trophies to the best male and female Austrian Athletes of 2017 at an award ceremony in Vienna on Monday (19) evening.
Hansen was joined at the award ceremony by Austrian Athletics President Sonja Spendelhofer and European Athletics Council Member Marton Gyulai.
Heptathlete Ivona Dadic was named 2017 Austrian Athlete of the Year on the women’s side. Dadic won a silver medal behind Nafissatou Thiam in the pentathlon at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Belgrade in a national record of 4767 points before finishing sixth in the heptathlon at the IAAF World Championships in another national record of 6417 points.
Dadic has started her season in brilliant shape, winning the national indoor pentathlon title in a European-leading mark of 4692 points.
Discus thrower Lukas Weisshaidinger was named 2017 Austrian Athlete of the Year on the men’s side. Weisshaidinger opened his season with a victory at the European Throwing Cup in Las Palmas and was also ninth in the final at the IAAF World Championships in London.
Weisshaidinger opened his season with victory at the ISTAF Indoor in Berlin last month with 63.91m to defeat Robert Harting. Weisshaidinger will cross paths with Robert - and his brother Christoph - again at the Berlin 2018 European Athletics Championships in August.