Amel Tuka and Zuzana Hejnova have been voted European Athletes of the Month for July.
And Tuka won the men’s title with a record number of votes, made through the European Athletics Twitter and Facebook pages over the past weekend since the contenders were announced. The winners are the athletes who have the most combined retweets and likes.
Tuka, 24, received an incredible 11,670 likes and 585 shares on Facebook and 220 retweets and 58 favourites on Twitter, breaking the previous highest number of 'votes' which was held by Serbian long jumper Ivana Spanovic a couple of months ago.
But what a month it has been for Tuka, the Bosnia and Herzegovina 800m runner, who broke the national record with his sensational win on his debut at the IAAF Diamond League in Monaco on July 17 where he triumphed in 1:42.51.
It is the fastest time in the world this year and makes him the favourite for gold at this month’s world championships in Beijing.
The women’s vote was much closer, with the Czech Republic's 400m hurdles world champion Hejnova, 28, just edging out double European sprint champion Dafne Schippers, of the Netherlands.
Hejnova’s return to track and field this year after injury has seen her performances grow with each race, and she moved to the top of the European Athletics rankings with her victory in 53.76 in Paris on July 4.
She received 669 Facebook likes and 51 shares with 11 retweets to beat Schippers, 23, who broke the national 100m record as she won in London in 10.92 having run a European-leading 200m time of 22.09 in Monaco. She collected 484 likes, 167 retweets, and 11 favourites.