Jessica Ennis, Olympic champion, named Sportswoman of the Year

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Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis has won the Sunday Times Sportswoman of the Year Award.

The 26-year-old set three personal bests and a British record of 6,995 points on her way to gold in London.

Olympic gold medallists Katherine Grainger and Jade Jones and Paralympic champion Sarah Storey also won awards.

Ennis told BBC Sport: "It's an incredible honour considering the amazing performances we've had this year from British women."

Of the record 65 medals won by Team GB at the Olympics, British women were involved in winning 25 of them. The success continued at the Paralympics with female competitors winning 19 of 34 golds won by ParalympicsGB.

Ennis set three personal bests on her way to beating Germany's Lilli Schwarzkopf by a huge 306 points.

The heptathlete joins a prestigious list of winners which include marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, Olympic heptathlete champion Denise Lewis, double Olympic gold medallist Kelly Holmes and last year's winner Sarah Stevenson, who won world Taekwondo gold in 2011.

Ennis added: "It's so nice, once you've done all the hard work and you've achieved, to be awarded with these amazing awards that people have voted for.

"It's a real honour and Sports Personality [BBC Sports Personality of the Year] is definitely going to be a big one too. It's going to be a surprise on the night I think but a great evening."

British rower Grainger, a three-time Olympic silver medallist before she triumphed with Anna Watkins in the women's double sculls in London, was voted Olympian of the Year.

Storey was named Paralympian of the Year after she equalled the British record for modern Paralympic victories when she took her fourth gold of the Games and 11th overall.

Media caption,

How Jessica Ennis won gold in 2012

Jones, 19, who claimed Britain's first Olympic taekwondo gold medal, was voted Young Olympian of the Year, while Ellie Simmonds, who won two golds, a silver and a bronze at the Paralympic Games this summer, was named Young Paralympian of the Year.

Tennis duo Heather Watson, who last month became the first British woman to win a WTA singles title since 1988, and Olympic silver medallist Laura Robson were jointly named Young Sportswomen of the Year while Dani King, Laura Trott and Joanna Rowsell, who won Olympic gold in the team pursuit, took the Team of the Year Award.

Jenny Archer, who coached David Weir to four gold medals in London, has been voted Coach of the Year while UK Sport chair Baroness Sue Campbell won the Lifetime Achievement Award.

Claire Lomas, a British woman paralysed from the chest down by a horse riding accident who completed the London Marathon in 16 days, won the Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration with Di Redfern, a long-time volunteer for the Riding for the Disabled Association, taking the Community Award.

Eleanor Oldroyd presented a BBC Radio 5 live special from the awards. You can download it here., external

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