Britain's Mo Farah named European Athlete of the Year

Britain's Mo Farah has been named male European Athlete of the Year after a remarkable 2011 season.

Farah, 28, won gold in the 5,000m and silver over 10,000m at the World Championships in Daegu, South Korea.

Farah was just beaten by Ethiopian Ibrahim Jeilan over the longer distance but recovered to claim 5,000m glory.

It was the first time a European athlete had won a major title at the distance since German Dieter Baumann at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

After his double success at last year's European Championships, Somalia-born Londoner Farah moved to the United States in a bid to improve his performances even further.

Having teamed up with coach Alberto Salazar, he set a European indoor record over 5,000m at the beginning of the year and defended his European indoor 3,000m title in Paris in March.

Farah ran a European 10,000m record of 26 minutes 46.57 seconds to win at the Diamond League meeting in Oregon in June, and in July he set a new British record of 12:53.11 over 5,000m in Monaco.

Britain's 400m world champion Dai Greene came third out of 12 nominations for the award, with French sprinter Christophe Lemaitre second.

Farah will be recognised at the European Athletics awards night on 15 October in Arona, Spain, alongside the women's winner Mariya Savinova of Russia, who took 800m gold in Daegu.

The European Athletics rising star of the year winners, David Storl of Germany and Britain's Jodie Williams, will also be present to pick up their awards.