Mo Farah winning the 2011 WC 5,000m, photo by PhotoRun.net

Mo Farah had a tremendous season. From his European Indoor title to his World Champs silver and gold, Farah has emerged as one of the pre eminent distance runners in the world! ” If someone would have said a British male distance runner would win medals in Daegu four years ago, you would have been laughed at,” noted one keen observer of the British athletics.

Congrats to Mo Farah and his team on a superb 2011!

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Great Britain’s Mo Farah voted 2011 European Athlete of the Year

Mo Farah of Great Britain has been voted the 2011 winner of the men’s European Athlete of the Year Award presented by MONDO.

The
pinnacle of his achievement in 2011 was, of course, winning the 5000m
gold medal at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea, but there
were so many other outstanding moments for the European Athlete of the
Year to savour.
The 28-year-old started off his year by setting a
European indoor record over 5000m in Birmingham in February, circling 25
laps of the National Indoor Arena in 13:10.60. He successfully defended
his 3000m title at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Paris
in March.

Moving into the summer, Farah set a European 10,000m
record of 26:46.57 when winning at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene,
Oregon, in June and in July he ran a 2011 world-leading 5000m of
12:53.11 in Monaco, a time which ranked him second on the European
all-time lists for the event as well as being a national record.

However, all this was a prelude to his feats at the World Championships in Daegu.

He
had to settle for the silver medal in the 10,000m – one of only two
defeats in 14 competitions on all surfaces during 2011 – but bounced
back to run a tactically perfect race in the 5000m to become the first
European runner to win a global title at the event for nearly two
decades.

Farah will be recognised for his feats at the European
Athletics Awards Night presented by MONDO on Saturday 15 October in
Arona, Spain, alongside the women’s European Athlete of the Year winner
Mariya Savinova of Russia.

The European Athletics Rising Star of
the Year winners, David Storl of Germany and Great Britain and NI’s
Jodie Williams, will also be present to pick up their awards.

Fans,
media and European Athletics Member Federations were invited to vote
for the European Athlete of the Year on the European Athletics website.
Along with the votes from a panel of experts, each group of voters’
results count for one quarter of the athlete’s final score.

The
shortlist for the award was compiled by selecting the top European
athlete in different events, based largely on performances at the IAAF
World Championships, European Athletics Indoor Championships, European
Athletics events and the series of Diamond League and European Athletics
meetings. Only in very exceptional cases were two athletes from one
event nominated.

No athlete who has previously served a two-year doping ban can be nominated for European Athlete of the Year.

Men’s European Athlete of the Year presented by MONDO final rankings

1.         Mo Farah (GBR)
2.         Christophe Lemaitre (FRA)
3.         David Greene (GBR)
4.         David Storl (GER)
5.         Robert Harting (GER)
6.         Matthias De Zordo (GER)
7.         Pawel Wojciechowski (POL)
8.         Teddy Tamgho (FRA)
9.         Kevin Borlee (BEL)
10.       Valeriy Borchin (RUS)
11.       Sergey Bakulin (RUS)
12.       Krisztian Pars (HUN)

European Athlete of the Year previous winners

1993 Linford Christie (GBR)
1994 Colin Jackson (GBR)
1995 Jonathan Edwards (GBR)
1996 Jan Zelezny (CZE)
1997 Wilson Kipketer (DEN)
1998 Jonathan Edwards (GBR)
1999 TomÃ¡s Dvorak (CZE)
2000 Jan Zelezny (CZE)
2001 AndrÃ© Bucher (SUI)
2002 Dwain Chambers (GBR)
2003 Christian Olsson (SWE)
2004 Christian Olsson (SWE)
2005 Virgilijus Alekna (LTU)
2006 Francis Obikwelu (POR)
2007 Tero PitkÃ¤mÃ¤ki (FIN)
2008 Andreas Thorkildsen (NOR)
2009 Phillips Idowu (GBR)
2010 Christophe Lemaitre (FRA)

2011 season: Mo Farah

3000 m

7:35.81i	SB (5)	2	New Balance	Boston MA	5 Feb
7:54.67+i		3	Aviva	Birmingham	19 Feb
8:02.36i		1h1	EC	Paris	4 Mar
7:53.00i		1	EC	Paris	5 Mar
7:40.15	SB (22)	1	Aviva	London	5 Aug

5000 m

13:10.60i AR	PB (3)	1	Aviva	Birmingham	19 Feb
13:06.14		1	Aviva	Birmingham	10 Jul
12:53.11 NR	PB (1)	1	Herc	Monaco	22 Jul
14:00.72		1	NC	Birmingham	31 Jul
13:38.03		2h2	WC	Daegu	1 Sep
13:23.36		1	WC	Daegu	4 Sep

10000 m

26:46.57 AR	PB (3)	1	Pre	Eugene OR	3 Jun
27:14.07		2	WC	Daegu	28 Aug

Personal bests: Mo Farah

Indoors:

3000m: 7:34.47 NR 1 Aviva Birmingham 21 Feb 2009

5000m: 13:10.60 AR 1 Aviva Birmingham 19 Feb 2011

Outdoors:

3000m: 7:38.15 3 Zagreb 2006 Zagreb 31 Aug 2006

5000m: 12:53.11 NR 1 Herc Monaco 22 Jul 2011

10000m: 26:46.57 AR 1 DL Eugene OR 3 Jun 2011

Find European Athletics at www.european-athletics.org, www.facebook.com/europeanathletics

and www.youtube.com/europeanathletics and follow on www.twitter.com/yoursport4life

Author

Larry Eder
Larry Eder has had a 52-year involvement in the sport of athletics. Larry has experienced the sport as an athlete, coach, magazine publisher, and now, journalist and blogger. His first article, on Don Bowden, America's first sub-4 minute miler, was published in RW in 1983. Larry has published several magazines on athletics, from American Athletics to the U.S. version of Spikes magazine. He currently manages the content and marketing development of the RunningNetwork, The Shoe Addicts, and RunBlogRun. Of RunBlogRun, his daily pilgrimage with the sport, Larry says: "I have to admit, I love traveling to far away meets, writing about the sport I love, and the athletes I respect, for my readers at runblogrun.com, the most of anything I have ever done, except, maybe running itself." Also does some updates for BBC Sports at key events, which he truly enjoys. Theme song: Greg Allman, " I'm no Angel."
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