Greece’s Elina Tzengko and Lithuania’s Mykolas Alekna were also crowned women’s and men’s Rising Stars for 2022
Both athletes won gold medals at the European Athletics Championships at the age of 19, the youngest gold medallists in championship history in their respective events.
Tzengko won the javelin title with a lifetime best of 65.81m while Alekna upgraded his silver medal from the World Athletics Championships with gold in Munich, setting a championship record of 69.78m in the discus to defeat a field which included world champion Kristjan Ceh and all three medallists from the Olympic Games last year.
Tzengko was one of three finalists for the women’s Rising Star award alongside high jumpers Angelina Topic from Serbia and Estonia’s Karmen Bruus - both of whom equalled the world U18 best of 1.96m this year - while Alekna was nominated alongside double European U18 champions Mattia Furlani from Italy and Dutch distance running prodigy Niels Laros.
Femke Bol, Armand Duplantis and Jakob Ingebrigtsen have been crowned European Athletes of the Year at the Golden Tracks award ceremony which was held in the Estonian capital of Tallinn on Saturday (22).
Summary of winners:
- Women’s European Athlete of the Year - Femke Bol (NED)
- Men’s European Athletes of the Year - Armand Duplantis (SWE), Jakob Ingebrigtsen (NOR)
- Women’s Rising Star - Elina Tzengko (GRE)
- Men’s Rising Star - Mykolas Alekna (LTU)
- European Athletics Fair Play Award - Nahuel Carabana (AND)
- European Athletics Member Federation Award - Iolanta Khropach (UKR)
- European Athletics Coaching Award - Kada Delic-Selimovic (BIH), Heiko Vaat (EST)