World 200m champion Dafne Schippers also took home a Golden Tracks award from the European Athletics Convention in Lausanne

Greg Rutherford rounded off a historic 2015 as he was crowned the male European Athlete of the Year while Dutch sprinter Dafne Schippers took home the female athlete award.

The 28-year-old British long jump record-holder became only the fifth British athlete after Linford Christie, Daley Thompson, Sally Gunnell and Jonathan Edwards to hold the Grand Slam of outdoor titles as he won the World Championships in Beijing with a leap of 8:41.

Rutherford followed up his first World Championship title with victory in the 2015 Diamond League race, winning each of his three appearances in this year’s competition in Oslo, Stockholm and, finally, Zurich.

Schippers becomes the first ever woman to retain the award, and joins European greats of the sport such as Yelena Isinbayeva, heptathlete Carolina Kluft and Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic in becoming a two-time European Female Athlete of the Year.

The Dutchwoman started off 2015 in blistering form, winning the European Indoor Championship 60m title before taking her form into the outdoor season.

The 23-year-old put on one of the performances of the season in Beijing, following up her silver medal in the 100m behind Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce to win the 200m title ahead of Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson with a time of 21:63 and become the third fastest woman over the distance in history.

WATCH @gregjrutherford is leaving Lausanne with some serious hardware after the 2015 #GoldenTracks… https://t.co/EoZDX12tsY — European Athletics (@EuroAthletics) October 17, 2015

The European Rising Star awards were taken home by European junior shot putt champion from Poland, Konrad Bukowiecki, and Swiss sprint hurdler Noemi Zbaren.

Bukowiecki won the European junior title in Eskilstuna with a throw of 20.46m using the senior weight of 7.26kg, having previously broken the world junior record with a 6kg shot, throwing out to 22.38m.

Zbaren won the European Athletics under-23 100m hurdles title in Talinn earlier this year with a new best of 12.71 just a month before making the World Championship final in Beijing where she came sixth.

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