Mahuchikh and Duplantis named European athletes of the year
Yaroslava Mahuchikh and Mondo Duplantis were announced by European Athletics as their athletes of 2024 on Saturday (Oct 26).
Both athletes won European and Olympic titles and set world records this year. They are also both winners of the continental governing body's 'rising stars' awards, too.
Duplantis, who has taken the world pole vault record to 6.26m this summer, was shortlisted alongside fellow Olympic and European champions Jakob Ingebrigtsen and Miltiadis Tentoglou while Mahuchikh, who improved the world high jump record to 2.10m, was shortlisted alongside 2022 and 2023 European athlete of the year Femke Bol and European and Olympic 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson.
Mahuchikh, who was crowned women’s rising star in 2019, received her European athlete of the year trophy from European Athletics president Dobromir Karamarinov.
European Athletics also named this year’s rising star winners as Serbia’s European javelin silver medallist Adriana Vilagos and Olympic 1500m sixth-placer Niels Laros from the Netherlands who set a European under-20 record of 3:29.54 in that final.
A special Team Spirit award was won by the Italian team which topped the medal table at the Roma 2024 European Athletics Championships with 11 gold medals. The award was received by Antonella Palmisano and Leonardo Fabbri, the 20km race walk and shot put champions respectively, and presented by European Athletics CEO Christian Milz.
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