European Athletics is pleased to announce that Ukrainian high jumper Bohdan Bondarenko and Bulgarian sprinter Ivet Lalova have been voted as European Athletes of the Month for June.
The Ukraine’s Bondarenko has been in sensational form this season. He won all five of his meetings in June and took the honours with a personal best and European-leading height of 2.36m at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Birmingham on 30 June. He subsequently improved his best to a world-leading mark of 2.41m at the Diamond League meeting in Lausanne on 4 July.
His phenomenal rise coupled with remarkable consistency helped him being voted European Athlete of the Month for the second month running.
Lalova, the 2012 European 100m champion, won at the European Athletics Team Championships First League in Dublin and had a big win at the IAAF Diamond league meeting in Oslo on 13 June, when she clocked a European-leading 11.04.
Reigning European javelin champion Vitezslav Vesely of the Czech Republic, who won four out of his five contests, including at the European Athletics Team Championships First League, and threw 87.58m to win at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Ostrava on 27 June, was voted second in the men’s’ poll.
Mo Farah, the 2011 and 2012 European Athlete of the Year, who ran a European-leading time of 13:05.88 at the IAAF Diamond League meeting in Eugene on 1 June and also won at the European Athletics Team Championships in Gateshead, was voted third.
Zuzana Hejnová, the London 2012 Olympic Games bronze medallist, who was unbeaten in four top-class races and ran a European-leading time of 53.32 on home soil at the IAAF World Challenge meeting in Ostrava on 27 June, was voted second in the women’s poll.
She was followed by 2012 Olympic discus champion Sandra Perkovic of Croatia who remains unbeaten this year and had another four wins in the month of June, including at the European Athletics Team Championships Second League and Mediterranean Games.
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. No athlete who has previously served a two-year doping ban can be nominated for the European Athlete of the Month.