The shortlist of athletes in line for the award includes German wheelchair tennis player Sabine Ellerbrock, Brazil's Paralympic sprinter Alan Fonteles Oliveira, Boccia player Jose Macedo from Portugal, Dutch sprinter Marlou van Rhijn and cyclist Alex Zanardi from Italy.

The nominations for the award are compiled from submissions by National Paralympic Committees and International Federations.

Ellerbrook secured her first Grand Slam title by winning the women's Wheelchair Singles title at Roland Garros.

The 38-year-old German beat world number one Aniek van Koot of the Netherlands 6-4, 6-4 in the semi-finals in Paris, avenging her defeat to the same opponent in the Australian Open final earlier this year.

In the final, Ellerbrock beat another Dutch woman, world number two Jiske Griffioen 6-3, 3-6, 6-1 to claim the title and leap frog Griffioen in the world rankings while doing so.

Brazilian sprinter Oliveira, 20, became the fastest man on blades following his victory at the IPC Athletics Grand Prix in Berlin.

The 200m T43/44 Paralympic champion ran 10.77sec on his way to victory in the 100m T43, beating the previous record jointly held by South Africa's Oscar Pistorius, and USA's Blake Leeper by 0.14.


In the women's 100m T43 race in Berlin, van Rhijn from the Netherlands also set a new world record by beating her own previous mark of 13.27, set during London 2012, with a blistering run of 12.96.

The 21-year-old already holds the 200m world record and also shaved a massive 3.85 off her own 400m T43 world record in Berlin, running a time of 61.10.

At the 2013 BISFed Boccia European Championships in Guimares, home favourite Macedo won the BC3 individual title in a thrilling match.


The 41-year-old Portuguese and London 2012 silver medallist defeated Paralympic champion Greg Polychronidis from Greece on a golden point.

Zanardi (pictured top) dominated his classification at both of June's International Cycling Union (UCI) Para-Cycling Road World Cup events in Merano and Marlango in his native Italy, and in Segovia, Spain.

The former Formula One driver, who claimed Paralympic gold in the 16-kilometre H4 handcycling time trial at London 2012, won the road race and time trials in the MH4 classification, during two World Cup events.

The public has until 12.00 (CEST) Monday July 8 to vote for who they think produced the most outstanding performance last month.

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