Britain’s double Olympic champion Mo Farah has been voted European Athlete of the Year for a second straight year.
Farah, who pulled off the 5,000/10,000m double in London, is just the second athlete to win back-to-back European Athlete of the Year awards after Swedish triple jumper Christian Olsson in 2003 and 2004.
Farah’s feats will be recognised at the European Athletics Awards Night in Malta today week alongside those of the women’s winner of the European Athlete of the Year award, Jessica Ennis.
The 29-year-old Somali-born distance runner defended his European 5,000m title in Helsinki to become the first man to win consecutive gold medals over the distance at the European Championships.
Six weeks later, he captivated the 80,000 capacity crowd in the Olympic Stadium with two wins executed in spectacular fashion with blistering finishes over the last lap to become the first Briton to win Olympic titles in long distance running events.