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AIPS names Isinbayeva best athlete of Europe

Isinbayeva won this title already in 2005 and 2008

© AP Photo/Misha Japaridze

ROME, January 01, /ITAR-TASS/. The International Sports Press Association (AIPS) has named Russian pole vaulter Yelena Isinbayeva the best female athlete of the year in Europe.

The women’s award for the Evgen Bergant Trophy was won for the third time by Isinbayeva with 56 votes ahead of Slovenian Tina Maze with 49 votes followed by Russian swimmer Julia Efimova with 41 votes and Ruta Meilutyte of Lithuania with 36 votes. Isinbayeva won this title already in 2005 and 2008, AIPS said.

Mo Farah of Great Britain was name the best male athlete of the year in Europe.

Isinbayeva and Farah are the winners in the 2013 Edition of the European Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year Awards.

It was the 31st annual poll conducted by the AIPS - EUROPE as the biggest continental section of AIPS and was established in 1977 at the AIPS Congress in Milano Marittima. Since 2003, the annual poll was named the Frank Taylor Trophy in honour of the former president of both AIPS and UEPS.

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