Felix and Röthlin voted European Athletes of the Month for November | 22.12.2011

Viktor Röthlin of Switzerland has been voted as European Athlete of the Month for November.

European Athletics is pleased to announce that Portugal’s cross country specialist Ana Dulce Felix and European marathon champion Viktor Röthlin of Switzerland have been voted as the European Athletes of the Month for November.

Felix was the first European home in fourth place at the ING New York City Marathon in a personal best of 2:25:40 on 6 November and then a winner at the 22nd Cross da Amora two weeks later. Röthlin, 2010 European Athletics Championships marathon gold medallist, was the first European home in the men’s category at the ING New York City Marathon in 2:12:26.

Ireland’s Fionnualla Britton, who finished third in a high quality field at the Cross de l´Acier in the French town of Leffrinckoucke on 27 November, a European Athletics Cross Country Permit Race, finished second in the women’s poll. She was closely followed by the Netherland’s Adriënne Herzog, who took the honours at the 53rd International loket.nl Warandeloop in the Dutch city of Tilburg on 27 November, also a European Athletics Cross Country Permit Race.

Ana Dulce Felix of Portugal.

In the men’s poll, Belgium’s Atelaw Bekele, who cruised to victory on home soil at the European Athletics Cross Country Permit Race in the Belgian town of Roeselare on 27 November, was voted second, while Briton Andy Vernon, an outstanding winner of the senior men’s race at the McCain Liverpool Cross Challenge event incorporating the UK Trials for the SPAR European Cross Country Championships, finished third.

European Athletics’ monthly poll received overwhelming support from thousands of athletics fans and media alike this month from all over Europe.

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. A male and female winner each month is named and featured on the European Athletics website.

Selections are based on votes by the public, media and a panel of European Athletics experts – each counting for 33.3 percent of the final vote. No athlete who has previously served a two-year doping ban can be nominated for or win the European Athlete of the Month award.
 







Previous winners:

Month	Male	Country	Female	Country
January	Ivan Ukhov	RUS	Jessica Ennis	GBR
February	Teddy Tamgho	FRA	Antonietta Di Martino	ITA
March	Zigismunds Sirmais	LAT	Charlotte Purdue	GBR
April	Valeriy Borchin	RUS	Olga Kaniskina	RUS
May	Christophe Lemaitre	FRA	Betty Heidler	GER
June	Christophe Lemaitre	FRA	Ivet Lalova	BUL
July	Ahmet Arslan	TUR	Darya Klishina	RUS
September	Robert Harting	GER	Anna Chicherova	RUS
October	Henryk Szost	POL	Liliya Shobukhova	RUS

Note: There were no polls for the month of August due to voting for the European Athlete of the Year.