Farah, for whom this is the third such award, and Ennis will thus become the holders of trophies renamed in honour of two most fondly remembered athletics writers - male athletes of the year will now win the John Rodda Award, in memory of late athletics correspondent of The Guardian, while female athletes of the year will receive the Cliff Temple Award, which commemorates the former Sunday Times athletics correspondent who died in tragic circumstances in 1994.

Farah has already been named European Athlete of the Year, and is a strong contender for the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) World Athlete of the Year award, to be announced at the IAAF Gala in Monaco on November 12.

Farah now becomes the first distance runner to win the BAWA award three times, joining Sebastian Coe, Lynn Davies, Linford Christie and Jonathan Edwards as a triple awardee.

A gold medal in Daegu rounded off an extraordinary year for the 28-year-old Somali-born athlete, who is now based in Portland, Oregon under the coaching of Alberto Salazar.

As well as winning a world silver at 10,000m, he retained his European indoor 3,000m title in March and went on to set European records at 5,000 and 10,000m and set a British half marathon best on his debut at the distance in New York.

Greene, who won the world 400m hurdles title this year, was runner-up for the second year in succession, with Phillips Idowu, world silver medallist in the triple jump, was third.


Like Farah, Ennis (pictured) -who lost her world title to Tatyana Chernova of Russia - has three BAWA awards, and is now only one behind the 2000 Olympic heptathlon champion Denise Lewis.

"It is great to once again be recognized by BAWA," said Ennis.

"The heptathlon is not the easiest discipline to follow and the athletics writers really help the public follow my progress."

Helen Clitheroe, European indoor 3,000m champion at the age of 37, was third in the women's vote.

She also became the first winner of the new BAWA Inspiration Award.

Jodie Williams, the European 100 and 200m champion, who the Lillian Board Memorial Award for junior women for the third year in a row, while the Jim Coote Memorial Award for junior men went to Birchfield Harrier's Adam Cotton, the European junior 1,500m champion.

The Ron Pickering Memorial Award for Services to Athletics was presented to Dave Bedford, race director of the Virgin London Marathon, who will step down after next year's event on April 22.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]


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