Vilinius (Lithuania), Oct 15 (IANS): Greek Olympic pole vault champion Aikaterini Stefanidi and German world javelin champion Johannes Vetter were named female and male Eruopean Athletes of the Year at the 2017 Golden Tracks award ceremony here.

At the annual gala on Saturday, Ukrainian world high jump silver metalist Yuliya Levchenko and Norwegian world 400m hurdles champion Karsten Warholm were named female and male Rising Stars respectively for impressing the most over the calendar year, reports Xinhua news agency.

The lifetime achievement prize was given to Lithuanian famous former discus thrower Virgilijus Alekna.

The winning athletes were decided by votes from the fans, media, European Athletics Member Federations as well as an expert European Athletics panel, with the results from each group of voters counting for one quarter of the athletes' final score.

The 2016 Golden Tracks award ceremony was held in Funchal, Portugual, where Olympic 5000m and 10,000m champion Mo Farah form Britain and Olympic high jump champion Ruth Beitia from Spain were crowned male and female European Athletes of the Year.