European Athletics is pleased to announce that Russia's Ivan Ukhov and Great Britain's Jessica Ennis have been selected as the European Athletes of the Month for January.

Ukhov, the High Jump gold medallist at the 2009 European Athletics Indoor Championships, came up with a string of top notch performances during the month, including a world-leading 2.37m in Hustopece and a 2.34m in Trinec, both in the Czech Republic.

 

Ennis, the 2009 World Championships Heptathlon gold medallist and the 2007 European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winner, ran 7.95 for a British 60m hurdles indoor record in Glasgow on January 30.

She also cleared 1.94m in the High Jump on the same day, a personal best indoors and just one centimetre away from the British record.

 

Ennis, along with Croatia's Blanka Vlasic, is among this year's nominees for the World Comeback of the Year category at the prestigious Laureus Awards.

 

Vlasic finished a close runner-up in the women's poll for the Athlete of the Month for January while Czech middle-distance runner Marcela Lustigová finished third.

 

Spanish middle-distance star Sergio Sánchez and hurdler Petr Svoboda of the Czech Republic finished second and third in the men's poll.

 

The European Athlete of the Month initiative was launched in January 2007 and is designed to recognise outstanding performers at all levels of the sport in Europe.

 

European Athletics names a male and female winner each month and features the athlete on the European Athletics website. Selections are based on votes by the public, the media and a panel of European Athletics experts, with each counting for 33.3 percent of the final vote.

 

No athlete who has previously served a two-year doping ban can be nominated for or win the European Athlete of the Month.