Greg Rutherford and Jessica Ennis-Hill claim top prizes at the Sports Journalists’ Association Sports Awards in London and we look back at the first half of 2015 in our review of the year.
Olympic champions Greg Rutherford and Jessica Ennis-Hill have seen their success at this summer’s World Championships recognised after scooping the top prizes at the Sports Journalists’ Association Sports Awards in London.
The duo were named as the Sportsman of the Year and Sportswoman of the Year respectively following their gold medal triumphs in Beijing.
Rutherford cemented his place in sporting history when he added to his Olympic, European and Commonwealth Games titles in China – in the process joining an elite group of British athletes, alongside Daley Thompson, Linford Christie, Sally Gunnell and Jonathan Edwards, to have ever held all four titles simultaneously.
Ennis-Hill meanwhile took the Sportswoman of the Year prize for a record-equalling fourth time ahead of cyclist Lizzie Armitstead and skeleton athlete Lizzy Yarnold after returning to injury and the birth of her son to clinch her second world title.
Team of the Year went to the Great Britain Davis Cup team, led by Andy Murray, after they secured the title for the first time in 79 years following victory over Belgium last month. Read more here.
Jazz Carlin is keen to use the heartbreak of 2012 to propel her to glory next year.
The 25-year-old missed out on Olympic qualification for London but has since shown that she can mix it with the best and recently came home from the European Short Course Championships with gold medals over 400m and 800m.
And she is eager to use that momentum to help her realize her dream of competing at an Olympic Games.
"Confidence was definitely something I was really lacking after missing out on 2012. It did really put me down in the dumps," she said.
"I really want to book my place in the team. Obviously after what happened four years ago I definitely don't want to be in the same position again."
With 2015 coming to a close we have taken a look back at some of the highlights of an historic year for Britain’s athletes.
From Australia to Azerbaijan and everywhere in between we reflect on the highs and lows from January to June in the first of our two-part review of the last 12 months. Click here to relive the memories.
Today is day six of our guess the athlete competition where you can win £2000 to spend at DFS if you’re able to guess correctly. Just click here to have a go. Sportsbeat 2015