European Athletics has announced that French triple jump star Teddy Tamgho and multi-events specialist Jessica Ennis of Great Britain have been voted as the European Athletes of the Month for March.
Tamgho was the shock sensation at the IAAF World Indoor Championships in Doha, Qatar, last month when he set a new world indoor record of 17.90m in his final attempt to take the triple jump gold.
The 20-year-old, who had been lying in second place before his final jump, leapt past the long-standing previous mark of 17.83m shared by Aliecer Urrutia of Cuba and Swedish star Christian Olsson.
Ennis added an indoor gold to her world outdoor multi-events title in Berlin last August.
The Briton racked up a total of 4937 points to claim top prize in the women's pentathlon at the World Indoor Championships.
Making her championship debut, she clocked 8.04sec in the 60m hurdles, jumped a best of 1.90m in the High Jump, threw for 14.01m in the shot put, jumped a best of 6.44m in the long jump, and ran 2:12.55 in the 800m – breaking the championship record held by Sweden's Carolina Kluft by three points.
In a closely contested poll, Ennis edged Slovenian Javelin thrower Martina Ratej and Portuguese long jumper Naide Gomes, who finished second and third respectively.
The men’s poll was equally tight, but seasoned Italian race walker Alex Schwazer mustered enough votes to pip Russia’s brilliant high jumper Ivan Ukhov for the second spot.
As a matter of policy no athlete who has previously served a 2-year doping ban can be nominated for or win the European Athlete of the Month. However, an editorial oversight allowed Belarusian shot putter Andrei Mikhnevich to be nominated for the March award.
Mikhnevich served a two-year ban for a doping offence in 2001. His name was subsequently taken off from the polls. We apologise for any confusion this may have caused our voters.
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.
European Athletics names a male and female winner each month and features the athlete on the European Athletics website.
Selections are based on votes by the public, the media and a panel of European Athletics experts with each counting for 33.3% of the final vote.
