Ennis and Idowu
22.11.2009 World
Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu were named Athletes of the Year at the British Athletics Writers’ Association’s 47th Annual Awards Dinner on Saturday.
Britain’s two gold medallists at this summer’s World Championships in Berlin were voted the country’s top athletes of 2009 in a poll among BAWA members. Idowu winning the male athlete of the year trophy for the second year in a row, the first man to do so since fellow triple jumper Jonathan Edwards in 2000 and 2001. Ennis won the female award for the first time after dominating the heptathlon in Berlin only a year after she was forced to miss the Beijing Olympic Games with a career-threatening ankle injury. Jodie Williams won the junior female Athlete of the Year award after clinching gold at both 100m and 200m at the World Youth Championships in July. Male junior Athlete of the Year award went to Lawrence Clarke who won the 110m hurdles at the European Junior Championships in Serbia this summer. TV commentator, stadium announcer and statistician Peter Matthews was presented with the Ron Pickering Memorial Award for services to athletics. Matthews is editor of the world-renowned International Track and Field Annual, the acknowledged “Bible” of world athletics, and co-edits the Athletics International newsletter. A former editor of the Guinness Book of Records, he has covered numerous major championships and Olympic Games as a commentator and announcer, is chairman of the National Union of Track Statisticians and a committee member of the Association of Track and Field Statisticians. Writes David Martin.
|
