Vlasic voted athlete of year

Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic has been voted the 2010 winner of the women's European Athlete of the Year Award, becoming only the third women to win the top European honour for a second time.

Earlier this summer Vlasic filled one of the few remaining gaps in her trophy cabinet when she won at the European Athletics Championships in Barcelona.

Her triumph in Barcelona followed on from an unbeaten indoor season during which she won at the World Indoor Championships in Doha in March and also improved her indoor best, the Croatian record, to 2.06m. The height was not been bettered by anyone in the world in 2010.

Outdoors, she won 12 out of her 14 competitions including all seven of the IAAF Diamond League meetings at which her event was contested and at the IAAF Continental Cup, which was held in her home city of Split.

Vlasic will be presented with her award at the European Athletics Awards Night on October 16 in Belgrade.

French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre, named as the men’s winner of the European Athlete of the Year award earlier this week, will also be recognised along with European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners Teddy Tamgho and Sandra Perkovic.