European Athletics (EA) – News – Time to celebrate Europe’s girl powe

Together, Europe won 11 gold medals in the women's events, but it was the individual stories behind many of those medals which demonstrated what a glorious year it was.

In every direction there were heart-warming tales:

* Russia's Yelena Isinbayeva and Great Britain's Christine Ohuruogu were the comeback queens.

* Germany's Christina Obergfoll was the woman who never gave in in her pursuit of javelin gold.

* Zuzana Hejnova was the woman for whom Olympic third was only the start of the story.

* Sweden's Abeba Aregawi was the woman who would not let anyone destroy her dream of success for her new nation.

* Sandra Perkovic, the Croatian who dominated the discus throughout the year, won in Moscow along with the Diamond Race.

* Svetlana Shkolina, who may not have been the favourite in front of her home crowd and against a teammate who was the Olympic and defending world champion in Anna Chicherova, but still defeated her in the high jump.

* Tatyana Lysenko, another Russian, saved her best for Moscow when she triumphed with a national and Championship record of 78.80m.

* Elena Lashmanova was outstanding as she won the 20km walk for the host country who then saw their women win the 4 x400m gold from a squad of Yuliya Gushchina, Tatyana Firova, Kseniya Ryzhova, Antonina Krivishapka and Natalya Antyukh.

* And in Ukrainian Hanna Melnychenko, a personal best performance to win the heptathlon title.

Gold, though, was just part of the story for Europe's women in 2013 as Italy's Valeria Straneo showed.

Straneo finished second in the marathon, a wonderful performance from an athlete who only three years ago had to have her spleen removed.

It changed her life and there was arguably no greater smile during the whole of Moscow than that of Straneo's as she celebrated her success.

One of the noisiest track and field days in 2013 was March 2 when Aregawi won the 1500m title at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Goteborg.

As the decibel levels rose, the Swedish runner was in total command, and winning became a familiar theme for her during the year as she progressed to dominate the Diamond League series while adding the World crown on the way.

Hejnova was just simply unstoppable in the 400m hurdles.

A year on from winning bronze in London, she raised her game in style and few athletes around the globe this summer had such control of their event.

She rarely put a foot wrong over the barriers, never allowed the pressure or expectation to have the better of her and, like Aregawi, won in both Moscow and in the Diamond Race.

In a summer where she made it four out of four in the European Athletics Team Championships in Gateshead – the only athlete to have an unbeaten record in the competition – javelin star Obergfoll then won her first major championship title with victory in Moscow.

It meant gold to go alongside her five silvers and a bronze.

Isinbayeva turned back the clock five years to win her first major outdoor title since the Olympics in Beijing – and to achieve it in front of her home fans was something spectacular.

But with a clearance of 4.89m, she had the Moscow crowd in raptures.

Ohuruogu did exactly the same in the 400m, winning gold for the first time since Beijing and regaining a world crown she last held in 2007 – just like Isinbayeva.

They were performances which puts them among the main contenders for the European Athlete of the Year award – in a year where the women of Europe took on the world and triumphed.

To find out, Estonian Television (ETV) will have an hour-long European Athletics Awards Night programme from 19:10 local time that will be made available to European Broadcasting Union Members and also streamed live at https://otse.err.ee/etv/.