Vlasic and Alekna are European Athletes of the Month for July 14. August 07

Croatian High Jumper Blanka Vlasic, and Lithuanian Discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna, have been voted the European Athletes of the Month for July.
Vlasic, has had an outstanding season so far this year, and will be hoping to land the World title in Osaka at the end of the month where she will start as the hot favourite in her speciality event.

Beaten only once in thirteen competitions outdoors in 2007, the 23-year-old Croatian, had a sensational month in July, winning all six of her competitions and improving her Croatian record from the 2.04m she set in Doha in May, to 2.05m in Madrid on July 21 and 2.06m at the European Athletics Permit Meeting in Thessalonika, Greece on July 30.

At both of these competitions, she narrowly missed breaking the existing World record of 2.09m set by Bulgarian Stefka Kostadinova, when Vlasic was not yet 4-years-old, in Rome in 1987!

It is surely only a matter of time before she rewrites the record books however, as she has since improved her best to 2.07m at the Stockholm Grand Prix on August 7.

Alekna, too, has been no less impressive this season, unbeaten in his thirteen competitions this year and currently embarking on a record breaking winning streak of 37 successive victories.

Currently the champion at each of the last two World Championships and Olympic Games, the 35-year-old Lithuanian will also be the favourite to complete a hat trick of titles at this months World Championships in Osaka.

In July he clocked up six high level victories in Athens, Klaipeda, Réthimno, Madrid, Zarogoza and the European Athletics Permit Meeting in Kaunas, where his last round duel with Estonian Gerd Kanter forced the delay of the Lithuanian evening TV news!

No stranger to success at global level, Alekna boasts an unusual record of achievement at the IAAF World Championships, winning silver medals in 1997 and 2001 to go along with the gold in 2003 and 2005 and will certainly create a record for consistency if he lives up to his status in Osaka.

The runners-up in the women's poll were Bulgarian sprint sensation, 20-year-old Tezdzhan Naimova who leads the European 100m rankings, Swedish hurdler Susanna Kallur and Portuguese distance runner Jessica Agusto.

The runners-up in the men's poll were British sprinter Marlon Devonish and the Swedish pair of Christian Olsson (Triple Jump) and Mustafa Mohamed (3,000m steeplechase).


Previous winners:
Jul 07
Virgilijus Alekna
LTU
Blanka Vlasic
CRO

Jun 07
Francis Obikwelu
POR
Kim Gevaert
BEL

May 07
Halil Akkas
TUR
Tatyana Lysenko
RUS

Apr 07
Viktor Roethlin
SUI
Elvan Abeylegesse
TUR

Mar 07
Jason Gardener
GBR
Naide Gomes
POR

Feb 07
David Gillick
IRL
Yelena Isinbayeva
RUS

Jan 07
Ivan Ukhov
RUS
Susanna Kallur
SWE




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 will name a male and female winner each month and feature the athlete on the European Athletics website. Selections are based on votes by the public and the media and a panel of European Athletics experts with each counting for 33.3% of the final vote. The winners will automatically be short listed for the European Athlete of the Year Award.

european-athletics.org