Darya Klishina - July Athlete of the Month
European Athletics is pleased to announce that Russian long jump sensation Darya Klishina and Turkish mountain running specialist Ahmet Arslan have been voted as the European Athletes of the Month for July.
Klishina collected a gold medal at the Ostrava 2011 European Athletics U23 Championships with an opening leap of 7.05m. The jump put her in second spot on the world lists behind American Britney Reese’s 7.19m. The 20-year-old also finished on the podium at the Diamond League meetings in Birmingham and Monaco.
Arslan laid claim to owning the title of the continent’s best-ever mountain runner when he took an incredible fifth successive European Mountain Running Championships gold medal on home turf in Bursa-Uludag.
For their memorable performances during the month of July, they have been voted as European Athletes of the Month after thousands of athletics fans from across Europe casted their votes.
French sprint sensation Christophe Lemaitre, who ran a sensational 9.92 national record for the 100m at the national championships in Albi and a European-leading 20.21 for second place behind Usain Bolt at the Diamond League meeting in Paris, had to settle for second spot in the men’s poll. Javelin superstar Andreas Thorkildsen, who won every competition he entered and closed the month with a world leading throw of 88.43m at the Diamond League meeting in Stockholm, was voted third.
Berlin 2009 high jump silver medallist Anna Chicherova of Russia jumped a world season leading and national record 2.07m at the national championships in Cheboksary and was voted second in the women’s poll ahead of Bulgarian sprints star Ivet Lalova, who became the first European female sprinter to go sub-11 seconds in six years after she won the women’s 100 metres in 10.96 at the 64th Balkan Athletics Championships in Sliven, Bulgaria.
The European Athlete of the Month initiative was launched in January 2007 and is designed to recognise outstanding performers at all levels of the sport in Europe.
European Athletics names a male and female winner each month and features the athlete on the European Athletics website.
Selections are based on votes by the public, media and a panel of European Athletics experts – each counting for 33.3% of the final vote. No athlete who has previously served a two-year doping ban can be nominated for or win the European Athlete of the Month award.
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