Ennis thus becomes the third Briton to win this award after Olympic, world, European and Commonwealth 400 metres hurdles champion Sally Gunnell, who won the vote for the inaugural trophy in 1993, and double Olympic champion Kelly Holmes, winner in 2004.

Ennis finished ahead of two other Olympic champions – Russia's Anna Chicherova, who won the high jump gold at the London 2012 Olympics, was second, a place ahead of Barbora Špotáková, the Czech Republic javelin thrower who retained her title in London this summer.

Since winning her Rising Star award, Ennis has won European and world titles in the heptathlon before delighting the 80,000-strong home crowd in the Olympic Stadium by taking gold after producing three personal bests in the seven events.

She also set a British record of 6,955 points, moving up to number four on the European all-time list and fifth on the global rankings.

After her first British and Commonwealth record of the year, when she recorded 6,906 points at the famous multi-events meeting in the Austrian town of Götzis in May, Ennis became only the second woman to score over 6,900 twice in the same year and the first since 1988.

Jessica Ennis in the women's heptathlon 100m hurdles at the London 2012 Olympic Games

Earlier this year, Ennis had also given notice that she was in great shape when she took second place in the World Indoor Championships pentathlon with 4,965 points, a tally only ever beaten by two other women.

Meanwhile, Mo Farah has become the second athlete to be named as the Men's European Athlete of the Year for a second consecutive year – following the achievement of Swedish triple jumper Christian Olsson in 2003 and 2004 – after his double success over 5,000m and 10,000m at the London 2012 Olympics.

Farah held off the challenges of two Frenchman to retain his trophy – Renaud Lavillenie, the Olympic and European pole vault champion, was second, with Christophe Lemaitre, the European 100m champion, third.

The Somali-born athlete is the sixth Briton to have received this award after Linford Christie (1993), Colin Jackson (1994), Jonathan Edwards (1995), Dwain Chambers (2002) and Phillips Idowu (2009).

Farah, 29, also defended his European 5,000m title in Helsinki to become the first man to win consecutive gold medals over the distance at the European Athletics Championships.

Six weeks later, he captivated the 80,000 capacity crowd in the Olympic Stadium with two wins executed in spectacular fashion with blistering finishes over the last lap to become the first Briton to win Olympic titles in long distance running events.

He became the seventh man, and fifth European, to do the distance double in the history of the Olympics but the first to achieve such a feat in front of a home audience.

Mo Farah made history at this summer's Games as he claimed Great Britain's first long distance gold medal

Farah opened his account with a tactically near-perfect 10,000m to cross the line in 27min 30.42sec.

Despite subsequent European and world titles, that win finally extinguished the anguish that Farah had felt four years ago in Beijing, when he failed to qualify for the 2008 Olympic Games 5,000m final.

A week later, on the final night of athletics in the Olympic Stadium, he added the 5,000m title to his ever-growing list of honours.

He became the first man to simultaneously hold the triumvirate of European, world and Olympic titles over the distance.

However, for the first few months of the 2012, such an emotional and climactic end to the year didn't seem possible.

He won only one of his four indoor competitions and, although he did set a European indoor two miles best, he also finished out of the medals in fourth place over 3,000m at the World Indoor Championships.

Once the outdoor season started though, Farah showed his true colours.

He won over 5,000m at the Diamond League meeting in Eugene in 12:56.98 in early June, the best time by a European runner this year, and never looked back thereafter.

Both Ennis' and Farah's achievements will be celebrated during the European Athletics Awards Night in St Julians, Malta, on Saturday October 13 alongside the men's winner of the European Athlete of the Year award, to be announced today.

The European Athletics Rising Star of the Year winners, Pavel Maslák of the Czech Republic and Angelica Bengtsson of Sweden, will also be present to pick up their awards.

Fans, media and European Athletics Member Federations were invited to vote for the European Athletics Rising Star on the European Athletics website.

Along with the votes from a panel of experts, each group of voters' results counted for one quarter of the athlete's final score.

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