Dina Asher-Smith, Eliud Kipchoge and Hannah Cockroft are among the athletes of the year

Marathon runners and sprinters have come out on top after thousands of votes were cast in the AW Readers’ Choice Awards, with
Eliud Kipchoge and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce your choice as the international athletes of 2019, while Dina Asher-Smith and Callum Hawkins get the nod as the top British athletes.

The end-of-year stats special edition of AW includes full results but here we highlight the top three in each of the 10 categories.

For the full results breakdown with percentages, check out the December 19 edition of AW magazine, which is available in shops now and digitally here. As well as Readers’ Choice Awards results, the 112-page bumper issue includes global and British rankings, a review of the year and more.

Thank you for voting!

International Male Athlete

1 Eliud Kipchoge
2 Karsten Warholm
3 Sam Kendricks

Kipchoge only competed once in 2019, a course record and then world-leading 2:02:39 in winning at London. However, he made history in a paced non-competitive run in Vienna as he timed a ground-breaking 1:59:41 in the marathon and he wins this year’s international male honour.

International Female Athlete

1 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
2 Dalilah Muhammad
3 Sifan Hassan

Double Olympic champion Fraser-Pryce was voted top in a year which saw her win the world 100m title in a very fast world-leading 10.71 to just miss her seven-year-old PB. She also won gold in the 4x100m relay and ran 22.22 for 200m.

British Male Athlete

1 Callum Hawkins
2 Adam Gemili
3 Mo Farah

After a marathon PB of 2:08:14 for 10th at the London Marathon to go No.3 on the UK all-time rankings, Hawkins finished fourth in the World Championships – just six seconds outside a medal – after having been in the lead with a mile to go. He claims the British male athlete crown ahead of Adam Gemili and Mo Farah.

British Female Athlete

1 Dina Asher-Smith
2 Katarina Johnson-Thompson
3 Alyson Dixon

Asher-Smith won world 200m gold and 100m silver, breaking her own British records and running European leading times in both (10.83 and 21.88). She also claimed 4x100m silver and won the Diamond League 100m title and her honours this year, as well as being voted AW British female athlete, include a third place in the BBC sports personality of the year.

British Male U20 Athlete

1 Max Burgin
2 Oliver Dustin
3 James Tomlinson

Still only 17, Burgin set a UK under-20 and European under-18 800m record of 1:45.36. He missed the European Under-20 Championships due to injury but his time ranked him No.6 on the UK senior lists for 2019 and his performances impressed the readers of AW the most.

British Female U20 Athlete

1 Amy Hunt
2 Lucy-Jane Matthews
3 Amber Anning

Hunt broke the world under-18 and British under-20 200m record with 22.42 and subsequently won the European under-20 title. Her PB puts her second on the UK senior season rankings and here she topped the British under-20 female vote ahead of Lucy-Jane Matthews and Amber Anning.

British Male Masters Athlete

1 Paul Fletcher
2 Donald Brown
3 John Wright

Fletcher finished third in the world masters M60 indoor 1500m before winning three golds at the European Masters with an unusual treble at 1500m, 10,000m and 800m. The latter was the race of the championships, where he came from well back to snatch victory on the line from fellow Brit Keith McGhie in a vet PB 2:15.22. He also won the Westminster Mile and BMAF title in 5:10 to go second all-time among Brits.

British Female Masters Athlete

1 Clare Elms
2 Jane Horder
3 Caroline Powell

Elms set W55 world indoor marks at 800m, 1500m, mile and 3000m, world outdoor marks at 1500m (4:46.64) and mile (5:10.35) and world bests on the road at mile (5:09), 5km (17:39) and five-mile (29:05). She also set UK outdoor records at 800m (2:22.38), 3000m (10:11.24) and 5000m (17:42.99) and won four golds (1500m, 3000m, cross-country and XC team) in the world indoors in Poland and six golds (1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, cross-country, 10km and XC team) at the European Masters in Italy.

British Male Para Athlete

1 Paul Blake
2 Aled Davies
3 Jonathan Broom-Edwards

Blake won world T36 800m gold in Dubai, claiming an eight-second victory for Britain’s first title of the 2019 World Para Athletics Championships.

British Female Para Athlete

1 Hannah Cockroft
2 Maria Lyle
3 Sophie Hahn

Cockroft added more world titles to her impressive CV and now has another award to go with them too, as she was voted top in our poll after winning T34 100m and 800m gold medals in Dubai with a world record in the shorter sprint.