Mickle pips pearson for top gong

The West Australian WA javelin star Kim Mickle last night edged out champion hurdler Sally Pearson to be named Athletics Australia Female Athlete of the Year for a second straight year.

Mickle received the prestigious award at a glitzy ceremony in Melbourne, pipping Pearson, who recently claimed her second The Don award as the most inspirational Australian athlete of the

past 12 months, by just one vote. Mickle and Pearson (100m hurdles) both won gold at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, but the laid-back West Australian's effort to become the new

national women's javelin record holder netted her the honour. "This is amazing," she said. "Last year was a massive shock, and to win a second in a row is unbelievable.

"The other girls nominated are the people that I look up to so to win an award like this ahead of them is pretty special. "I have to thank my WAIS coach Grant Ward, who has been

there through thick and thin and not only do I call him the best coach in the world but also a great mate." Mickle, who had a brilliant 2013 in which she won a silver medal at the world

championships in Moscow, follows in the footsteps of Pearson, who won the award in 2011 and 2012. The other finalists in the most hotly contested category of the night were fellow Glasgow

gold medallists Dani Samuels (NSW), Alana Boyd (QLD) and young Victorian high jumper Eleanor Patterson, who won junior athlete of the year. Marathon runner Michael Shelley won male athlete

of the year, Samuels was named Euro- sport Athlete of the Year, for the best performance in the IAAF Diamond League, with Michael Roeger (SA) and Angela Ballard (NSW) taking out the male and

female para-athletes of the year. GET THE LATEST NEWS FROM THEWEST.COM.AU IN YOUR INBOX. Sign up for our emails