The talented 30-year-old Londoner proved his credentials outdoors throughout a fantastic year and got the better of Portuguese nemesis Nelson Évora to take the World Championships triple jump gold medal in Berlin in August with a world-leading leap and personal best of 17.73 metres.

It made up for the disappointment of last year when Idowu entered the Olympics in Beijing as the favourite but had to settle for silver after being beaten by Evora.

Idowu has been one of Europe's top triple jumpers since 2002 when he won a silver medal in the Commonwealth Games in Manchester.

He won the Commonwealth title in Melbourne in 2006 and the European and world indoor titles in 2007 and 2008 and now has his sights set on 2012 Olympics, when he will be competing in a stadium built close to Hackney, where he was born and raised.
 

Idowu will be presented with his European Athlete of the Year Award at the European Athletics Convention in Budapest on October 17, alongside the women's European Athlete of the Year winner, Spain's Marta Domínguez and the European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners.
 

Supporters, media and European Athletics member federations were invited to vote for the European Athlete of the Year on the European Athletics website.

The award is sponsored by Mondo.

Along with the votes from a panel of experts, each group of voters' results count for one quarter of the athlete's final score.
 

The shortlist for the award was compiled by selecting the top European athlete in each event, based largely on performances at the IAAF World Championships in Berlin.