European Athletics (EAA) – News – Germany’s Athletes of the Year are Reif and Sailer

Germany’s 2010 Athletes of the Year are long jumper Christian Reif and sprinter Verena Sailer, the pair being propelled to success after winning gold medals at the 2010 European Athletics Championships last summer.

Reif and Sailer, who also both set personal best marks when winning in Barcelona – Reif jumping a 2010 world-leading 8.47m and Sailer winning the women’s 100m in 11.10 despite running into a slight headwind – came out on top of a poll conducted by the German athletics federation website www.leichtathletik.de, and the magazines Leichtathletik and Leichtathletik Informationen. Nearly 4000 people took part in the poll.

Javelin throwers took second place in both of the senior athlete’s polls with Matthias de Zordo, the 2010 European Athletics Championships silver medallist and a winner at the SPAR European Team Championships, finishing as runner up in the men’s contest while Linda Stahl, who won in Barcelona with a personal best of 66.81m, was the second in the women’s voting.

Germany’s strength in the javelin also showed up in voting for the Junior Athletes of the Year with Till Woschler, who won the IAAF World Junior Championships javelin gold medal with a national junior record of 82.52m, taking the men’s honours.

Sara Gambetta, the heptathlon silver medallist in Moncton, was the junior women’s award winner.

Gambetta is still only 17 and will be eligible to compete as a junior for the next two years, which means there could be another enthralling battle for supremacy with the Netherlands’ 18 year-old Dafne Schippers, who beat her to the gold medal at the World Junior Championships, at this summer’s European Athletics Junior Championships in Tallinn, Estonia.

European Athletics (EAA) – News