Double Tokyo Olympics Games champion Sifan Hassan from the Netherlands has been crowned the 2021 European Woman Athlete of the Year at the Golden Tracks award ceremony that was held on Saturday evening October 16th in Lausanne, Switzerland.
Hassan has been an outstanding performer this summer having won three medals that included the 5000m, 10,000m and 1500m bronze titles. Hassan was crowned women’s European Athlete of the Year for the first time and she became just the second Dutch athlete to win this accolade after Dafne Schippers in 2014 and 2015.
Hassan, who was unfortunately not able to be present at the awards ceremony and Dutch federation President Eric van der Burg received her trophy on her behalf from European Athletics Vice President Cherry Alexander, won ahead of fellow Olympic champions Anita Wlodarczyk from Poland and Mariya Lasitskene, the latter being the 2019 European Athlete of the Year.
Hassan has also been in record-breaking form this season. She decimated Almaz Ayana’s world 10,000m record of 29:17.45 on home soil at the FBK Games in Hengelo in June with 29:06.82.
That mark was subsequently broken two days later on the same track by Letesenbet Gidey but Hassan outsprinted the Ethiopian for the Olympic 10,000m title, her sixth race in the Japanese capital after winning gold in the 5000m and then bronze in the 1500m. It was a successful evening for Dutch athletics as European 400m hurdles record-holder Femke Bol was crowned women’s Rising Star.
On the men's side, Norwegian Karstem Warholm became a Golden Tracks winner for the third time following his 2019 Men's Athlete of the Year and 2017 Men's Rising Star awards. Only Sweden’s Christian Olsson in the 2003-2004 season and Britain’s Mo Farah in 2011-2012 have previously won the men’s award in back-to-back editions.
The Norwegian was part of an illustrious shortlist alongside Armand Duplantis from Sweden and Italy’s Lamont Marcell Jacobs, both of whom won gold medals at the Olympics as well as at the European Athletics Indoor Championships in Toruń in Poland.
Summary of Golden Tracks award winners:
1.Women’s European Athlete of the Year – Sifan Hassan (NED)
2. Men’s European Athlete of the Year – Karsten Warholm (NOR)
3. Women’s Rising Star – Femke Bol (NED)
4. Men’s Rising Star – Sasha Zhoya (FRA)
5. European Athletics Community Award – Maria Andrejczyk (POL)
6. European Athletics Women’s Leadership Award – Ana Krstevska (MKD)
7. Member Federation Award – Georgina Drumm (IRL)
8. European Athletics Coaching Award – Hansruedi Kunz (SUI)