With votes counted, we can now reveal your athletes of the year

Mondo Duplantis, Jemma Reekie, Max Burgin and Hannah Cockroft are among the winners of the 2020 AW Awards, with our readers responding in fine style when it came to selecting the athletes they believe to have performed with distinction over the past 12 months.

While this may have been a year of major disruption, there were still many great performances to celebrate and here we reveal who has been voted top in international, British, junior, masters and para athlete categories.

As well as our usual categories, there was an additional job to be done for 2020, given that we also asked readers to help celebrate the magazine’s 75th anniversary by selecting the male and female athlete they believe to have stood above all others during the past three quarters of a century.

Click here to find out who has been voted ‘The Greatest’.

The top results for every other category can be found below, with our December magazine featuring interviews, profiles, facts, stats and more on each of the winners.

The magazine is available to order in print here or buy digitally here.

AW Awards results

International Male Athlete

1 Mondo Duplantis
2 Karsten Warholm
3 Joshua Cheptegei

Sweden’s 20-year-old Mondo Duplantis has dominated the pole vault both indoors and out this year, breaking the world record by clearing 6.18m in Glasgow one week after he had entered the history books with 6.17m.

He also managed to break the outdoor record of 6.15m at the Diamond League meeting in Rome in September and wins the international male award ahead of 400m hurdles ace Karsten Warholm and multiple world record-breaker Joshua Cheptegei.

International Female Athlete

1 Sifan Hassan
2 Brigid Kosgei
3 Letesenbet Gidey

Netherlands’ double world champion Sifan Hassan smashed Dire Tune’s world one-hour record by covering 18,930m on the track at the Van Damme Memorial meeting in Brussels in September before she ran 29:36.67 in the rain to break Paula Radcliffe’s European 10,000m record in Hengelo last month.

She takes the international female title ahead of London Marathon winner Brigid Kosgei and world 5000m record-breaker Letesenbet Gidey.

British Male Athlete

1 Jake Wightman
2 Harry Coppell
3 Daniel Rowden

Jake Wightman improved his 1500m PB by more than two seconds and moved to second on the all-time British list with a time of 3:29.47 in finishing third behind Timothy Cheruiyot and Jakob Ingebrigtsen in Monaco.

Just a few days after an 800m silver medal run behind Daniel Rowden at the British Championships, the 26-year-old won in Ostrava, taking his PB from 1:44.61 to 1:44.18 and go No.10 on the UK all-time rankings.

He wins the British male award ahead of British pole vault record-breaker Harry Coppell and his fellow middle-distance star Rowden.

British Female Athlete

1 Jemma Reekie
2 Laura Muir
3 Laura Weightman

Jemma Reekie broke three British records inside eight days during the indoor season, in the 800m (1:57.91), 1500m (4:00.52) and mile (4:17.88). Her 800m time was a world indoor lead and she also ran 1:58.63 outdoors.

She finished the year with six wins in nine races, including the 800m at the Stockholm and Rome Diamond Leagues, as well as that quickest two-lap showing of 1:58.63 in Chorzow, Poland.

Reekie is voted the British female athlete of the year ahead of her training partner and friend Laura Muir and 14:35.44 5000m star Laura Weightman.

British Junior Male Athlete

1 Max Burgin
2 Lewis Byng
3 Kelechi Aguocha

Max Burgin celebrated his 18th birthday in May and re-emerged to competition in August with a British under-20 800m record of 1:44.75 at Stretford. It also ranks him No.4 on the UK senior rankings for 2020 in a high-quality year for the event.

He wins the British junior male category ahead of thrower Lewis Byng and high jumper Kelechi Aguocha.

British Junior Female Athlete

1 Amy Hunt
2 Keely Hodgkinson
3 Lucy-Jane Matthews

Despite running a world age 200m record last year, Amy Hunt did not race at that distance in 2020. Instead she honed her speed at 100m with 11.39 (and 11.35 wind-assisted) to go No.4 on the UK senior rankings. In a short yet busy season she won British Champs bronze and gained Diamond League experience in Doha, whereas back in February she won the British 60m title.

Hunt is voted top in the British junior female category ahead of British 800m champion Keely Hodgkinson and hurdler Lucy-Jane Matthews.

World Masters Male Athlete

1 Tommy Hughes
2 Herbert Mueller
3 Cees Stolwijk

Ireland’s Tommy Hughes set a stunning world masters half-marathon record of 71:09 at Larne to even overshadow Mo Farah’s victory. He also set a world indoor M60 3000m record of 9:41.24 and wins the world masters male award ahead of Germany’s world M90 200m indoor record-breaker Herbert Mueller and Dutch M70 world indoor 1500m record-breaker Cees Stolwijk.

World Masters Female Athlete

= 1 Julia Machin and Kathleen Stewart
= 2 Rosa Pedersen and Anne Gilshinan

Britain’s Julia Machin and Kathleen Stewart share the top world masters female prize after Machin broke the world W50 high jump record with 1.92m and Stewart debuted in the W80s with a 90.37 world record at 400m.

Joint second were Denmark’s Rosa Pedersen and Ireland’s Anne Gilshinan.

World Para Male Athlete

1 Brent Lakatos
2 David Weir
3 Tomoki Suzuki

Brent Lakatos won the Virgin Money London Marathon after a sprint finish, clocking 1:36:04 to finish two seconds ahead of David Weir. He also won the Big Half in a course record and the 400m wheelchair race at the British Championships and claims the world para male athlete award ahead of Weir and Tokyo Marathon champion Tomoki Suzuki.

World Para Female Athlete

1 Hannah Cockroft
2 Nikita den Boer
3 Tsubasa Kina

While the meeting wasn’t World Para Athletics sanctioned, meaning the times won’t stand as official world records, Hannah Cockroft went inside the world record marks for the 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m on the same day at Stoke Mandeville and also won the British 400m wheelchair title.

She gains the world para female athlete award ahead of London Marathon champion Nikita den Boer and Tokyo Marathon winner Tsubasa Kina.

Further interviews, profiles and more on the winners can be found in the December edition of AW magazine which is available to order in print here or buy digitally here.