Ennis was voted the inaugural European Athletics Rising Star in 2007 after the then 21-year-old achieved an outstanding performance to finish fourth in the heptathlon at the World  Championships in Osaka but subsequently missed out on Olympic glory in 2008 due to a serious ankle injury.

 

The 23-year-old Sheffield athlete, who is the joint British high jump record holder, came back with a bang last month winning the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) Combined Events Challenge in Desenzano del Garda in a new world leading score of 6,587 points to put herself firmly in the favourites position in the lead up to the World Championships in Berlin in August.

 

In a busy month her, seven days after her winning score she won the 100 metres hurdles in the prestigious Loughborough International and two weeks later she threw a javelin personal best of 44.18 metres to make it a truly outstanding month.
 

The men's award went to Nelson Évora, the Portuguese triple jumper who denied Britain's Phillips Idowu the Olympic gold medal in Beijing last year.

 

He topped the poll after jumping to the top of the world rankings with a leap of 17.66 metres at a meeting in Belem.