In the second part of our look at the nominees for the men’s and women’s European Athletes of the Year, it is all about success indoors and out as today we profile Katharina Molitor, Maryna Arzamasova, Jimmy Vicaut and Renaud Lavillenie.
The European Athletics Golden Tracks is awarded to the men’s and women’s European Athletes of the Year and Rising Stars. The Golden Tracks trophy will be awarded at a televised gala evening in Lausanne on Saturday 17 October and the voting will close on Monday 28 September.
You can vote through our Facebook and Twitter pages and click here to see the full list of nominees.
Women’s Athlete of the Year
As she took to the runway in the last round of qualifying in the javelin at last month’s IAAF World Championships in Beijing, Katharina Molitor knew she had to produce something special to make the final.
Her first two throws of 60.64m and 59.90m would not be enough to see her through but she then delivered a superb 63.23m to finish ninth overall.
At that stage, who could have believed that history would not only repeat itself 48 hours later, on the final evening of the championships, let alone that it would end with the German as the gold medallist.
But that became the case in the Bird’s Nest Stadium as Molitor, who had failed to make the final in Moscow two years earlier and had spent a decade knocking on the door for a podium position, produced the moment of her career.
China’s Lu Huihui led the competition with 66.13m but after a series of 60.84m, 61.37m, 64.74m, 61.86m and 62.13m, Molitor then launched the javelin high into the night sky to see it land at 67.69m.
It was an amazing throw, the best in the world in 2015 and a personal best by over three metres.
Not surprisingly, Molitor, 31, said, speaking to Reuters: 'I cannot believe this. After my fifth throw I thought 'Maybe I can still improve a little bit'. I dreamed about that and now I have this pb and world lead. Perfect.'
A year before, Belarusian Maryna Arzamasova had showed her power and tenacity to win the 800m at the European Athletics Championships in Zurich (1:58.15) and now she has the world title in her collection.
She arrived in Beijing with that time as her personal best but she broke it in her semi-final when she was second in 1:57.54 to Canada’s Melissa Bishop (1:57.52) but then made the final her own.
Arzamasova has so much strength in her legs, which showed in the home straight as she led the runners into it.
Bishop was a threat as a gap appeared on the inside while Kenya’s defending champion Eunice Sum was on her outside yet the Belarus star just dug as deep as she could and held on, before breaking out into a huge smile.
Bishop (1:58.12) was second and Sum was in third (1:58.18) and now heading into an Olympic year, Arzamasova is the favourite because no matter what tactics the rest try, she seems to find something else in those final stages.
'I dreamed about the gold medal at World Championships all my life and now I have it,' she said. 'I knew all girls can finish strong, so I decided to start it on the last 200m.'
Men’s Athlete of the Year
At the Olympic Games in Athens 2004, Portugal’s Francis Obikwelu won silver in 9.86 - a European record.
It is a mark which has stood the test of time but just over a month before its 11th anniversary, it was equalled this summer by France’s Jimmy Vicaut.
His run in Saint-Denis in Paris to earn this equal-billing with Obikwelu as Europe’s fastest man was reward for an outstanding period of sprinting and how fitting that it should happen in his home country.
Since 2010 he has been a consistent medallist, winning the 60m gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Gothenburg 2013 and now regularly dipping under the 10-second barrier.
He ran 9.95 twice in 2013 and then repeated that time in 2014 before going 0.09 of a second quicker in Paris to end the year fifth on the world rankings.
Vicaut was the only European to make the 100m final at the world championships in Beijing (he finished eighth in 10.00) after qualifying from his semi with 9.99 in what was a memorable summer for him.
His French teammate Renaud Lavillenie was crowned European Athlete of the Year in 2014 and this was another successful year for the pole vault star.
In Prague in March, with a stunning 6.04m, Lavillenie won gold at the European Athletics Indoor Championships for the fourth time in a row.
Though he missed out on gold at the world championships - he shared bronze - his consistency levels throughout 2015 remained outstanding.
At seven different competitions, indoors and out, he cleared 6.00m or better and then earlier this month, with victory in the IAAF Diamond League final in Brussels, he maintained his record as the only man to win the Diamond Race in their event every year since the competition began back in 2010. His sixth success was confirmed as he triumphed with 5.95m.