Andreas Thorkildsen wins the Olympic javelin title again (© Getty Images)
Norway's Andreas Thorkildsen and Yelena Isinbayeva of Russia have been voted as the male and female Waterford Crystal European Athletes of the Year 2008.
Thorkildsen successfully defended his Olympic men's Javelin Throw title this summer with his triumph in Beijing, while Isinbayeva also repeated her 2004 Olympic victory in the women’s Pole Vault, her unbeaten outdoor season including three world records, topped by the 5.05m clearance with which she won her gold medal in Beijing.
This year is the second occasion that Isinbayeva has received European Athletics' top honour, having also won in 2005.
In addition to her outdoor triumphs, with 10 consecutive victories in 2008, she also set a World indoor record of 4.95m in January and went on to win the World Indoor title in the Spanish city of Valencia in March.
After this year's exploits, she now has 24 World records - indoors and out - to her name.
Thorkildsen has developed a well-deserved reputation for finding his form on the big occasion and in the Chinese capital he sent his spear out to a new Olympic record of 90.57m, finishing nearly four metres clear of his closest rival.
The Norwegian is the second successive Javelin thrower to win the honour of being the male European Athlete of the Year, coming after Finland's Tero Pitkämäki took the award 12 months ago.
Thorkildsen's winning throw in Beijing, in still conditions which were far-from-ideal for long distances, came in the fifth round, but he had dominated the competition from the outset. No other thrower in the world this year has gone beyond 90 metres barrier, and Thorkildsen cementing his position as the best thrower in the world with a 90.28m release at the ÅF Golden League meeting in Zurich.
European Athletics
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