After a week of voting across Facebook and Twitter, Norway's Karsten Warholm and Israel's Lonah Chemtai Salpeter have been voted male and female European Athletes of the Month for May 2018.
The votes cast across Facebook and Twitter were combined to determine the outcome. Warholm edged out compatriot Jakob Ingebrigtsen in the men's category by 58 votes while Chemtai Salpeter proved a decisive winner in the women's category, winning by nearly 300 votes from Belgium's world and Olympic heptathlon champion Nafissatou Thiam.
Your male Athlete of the Month for May: Karsten Warholm!
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) June 8, 2018
Warholm opened his outdoor season with a runner-up finish in Rome in 47.82 to break the Norwegian record and long-standing European U23 record in the 400m hurdles. #athleteofthemonth pic.twitter.com/RM8UNHgaEf
After a brief albeit successful indoor season culminating with a world best in the 300m hurdles, Warholm opened his outdoor campaign in record breaking form. He finished second in the Rome Diamond League in 47.82, smashing his Norwegian record by four-tenths and shaving three-hundredths off Harald Schmid's long-standing European U23 record dating all the way back to 1979.
Warholm was nominated alongside Ingebrigtsen as well as Poland's Pawel Fajdek and Germans Richard Ringer and Thomas Rohler.
Chemtai Salpeter took the biggest victory of her career thus far at the European 10,000m Cup in London on 19 May, taking the title in an Israeli record and world-leading time of 31:33.03.
The other nominees for the women's award were Thiam, Croatia's Sandra Perkovic, Belarus' Alina Talay and neutral athlete Mariya Lasitskene.
Your female Athlete of the Month for May: Lonah Chemtai Salpeter!
— European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) June 8, 2018
Chemtai Salpeter took the biggest win of her career thus far at the European 10,000m Cup in London where she set a world-leading mark of 31:33.03. #athleteofthemonth pic.twitter.com/K1Z6RS9nGp