The Swedish Armand Duplantis, winner of the last two editions, is one of the finalists to the European athlete of the year award, together with Italian Gianmarco Tambari and Greek Miltiadis Tendiglou, announced European Athletics today.
© Lusa
05/10/2026
by
Lusa
European Athletics
ANDm 2026, Duplantis won the World Championships on short track, the Europeans in the open air and the Ultimate Championship, and increased to 6.31 meters his world record in pole jumping.
The Swedish can win for the fourth time the award for athlete of the year, after having already done it in 2022, 2024 and 2025, the first in equality with the Norwegian Jakob Ingebrigtsen, with whom he shared the award Rising Star in 2018.
The athlete of the year will always be a jumper, with Tamboeri (height) and Tentoglou (length) to be the other two candidates, after winning the Europeans and the Ultimate Championship, in which they achieved the best world brands of the year, of 2.37 and 8.66 meters, respectively.
The Italian Nadia Battocletti was world champion ‘indoor’ at 3,000 metres, before defending the titles of 5,000 and 10,000 outdoors in Birmingham Europeans, where British Amy Hunt won four gold medals at 100, 200, 4×100 and 4×100 mixed.
The Swiss Audrey Werro is another athlete of the year, after finishing 2026 undefeated in the 800 metres, winning the Europeans, the Diamond League and the Ultimate Championship, as well as becoming the third fastest in history in the distance, with 1.53,70.
At the men's Rising Star prize the finalists are Italian Daniele Inzoli (high in length), British Samuel James (high in height) and Czech Michal Rada (400 meters barriers.
The Bulgarian Viktoria Angelova (triple jump), the Czech Linda Botková (400 meters barriers) and the Slovenian Ziva Remic (800 meters) are candidates for female emerging stars.
The winners will be known at the Golden Tracks Awards gala in Lausanne, Switzerland on 24 October.