Britain’s double Olympic champion Mo Farah has been voted the European athlete of the year for the second straight year.

Farah, who pulled off the 5 000 and 10 000 metres double in the London Olympics, is the second athlete to win back-to-back, the European athlete of the year awards after Swedish triple jumper Christian Olsson in 2003 and 2004.

The 29-year-old Somali-born distance runner defended his European 5000m title in Helsinki to become the first man to win consecutive gold medals over the distance at the European athletics championships.

Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis was also named the women’s European athlete of 2012.