The sport of athletics was celebrated at the annual German Sports Gala in Baden-Baden where throwing duo Robert Harting and Christina Obergföll were named German Sports Personalities of the year.
The winners were selected based on a vote from hundreds of the country’s sports journalists.
One Germany’s most popular athletes, Robert Harting, was the surprise Sportsman of the Year with 2920 points, just edging out the expected winner, Formula 1 world champion Sebastian Vettel, who obtained 2788 points.
“I can’t believe I won, I really thought Vettel would win the vote,” he said.
Harting was crowned discus world champion in Moscow for the third consecutive time. He takes the title for the second time in a row and becomes the first athlete to win the award twice since Klaus Wolfermann.
Two more athletes were present in the top five, demonstrating Germany’s love for athletics, with pole vault world champion Raphael Holdzeppe in third and shot put world champion David Storl in fifth.
On the women’s side it was Christina Obergföll who was crowned with 3552 votes, far ahead of Wimbledon finalist Sabine Lisicki and skier Maria Höfl-Riesch.
“This is more than a cherry on a cake,” she said. “My heart is beating so fast, it’s just incredible.”
Obergföll followed javelin thrower Steffi Nerius who won the award back in 2009.
2013 represented the high point so far of a terrific career for Obergföll. She had earned five Olympic, world and European silver medals, but had never reached gold, which made for an emotional win in Moscow.
It has been 46 years since two athletes took the awards in a non-Olympic year. In 1967, decathlete Kurt Bendlin and discus thrower Liesel Westermann were the victors after both broke world records in their respective disciplines.
In 2014 Harting and Obergföll will have plenty more prizes to chase with the European Athletics Team Championships taking place in front of their home crowd in Braunschweig in June, before the European Athletics Championships in Zurich in August.