Jessica Ennis-Hill wins Sportswoman of the Year

Image source, AP

Image caption, Ennis-Hill first won the award following her Olympic gold medal in 2012

World champion Jessica Ennis-Hill has won the Sunday Times and Sky Sports Sportswoman of the Year award.

The 29-year-old, who also won in 2012, claimed her second World Championship heptathlon title in August, only 13 months after giving birth to her son.

Cyclist Lizzie Armitstead was second and skeleton racer Lizzy Yarnold third.

EuroHockey champions England won Team of the Year, sprinter Dina Asher-Smith Young Sportswoman, and Jordanne Whiley the Disability Sportswoman of the Year.

Presented with her award by 2013 winner Christine Ohuruogu, Ennis-Hill said: "When I think back to the year it has been incredibly hard.

"Just adjusting to life as a mum and having those amazing experiences, and coming back into training and reaching the top of my career again, it's been absolutely incredible. I really didn't think I would win the gold medal."

Looking ahead to next year's Olympics in Rio she added: "If I can get there in one piece it'll be my last Olympics so I really want to enjoy it, I want it to be special and I want my family to be part of it."

The England team came from 2-0 down to beat Olympic and world champions the Netherlands to win their first EuroHockey title since 1991.

Londoner Asher-Smith, 19, became the first British woman to run under 11 seconds, on 25 July this year.

Then, in the final of the 200m at the World Championships, she broke a 31-year-old British record by posting 22.07 seconds, finishing fifth in the process.

Birmingham's Whiley, 23, who suffers from Osteogenesis Imperfecta, also known as brittle bone disease, in September in her first major singles final, having already captured the Australian Open and Wimbledon doubles crowns.

Armitstead, 26, won gold at the Road Cycling World Championships, while Yarnold, 27, won the European and World Championships in successive months to complete a career grand slam.

Midlands football coach Annie Zaidi, the first South Asian and Muslim woman in her region to acquire a Level Two coaching certification badge from the Football Association and who has recently coached the QPR under-21s team during a placement at the club, was given the Helen Rollason Award for Inspiration.

Enid Bakewell, 74, who top-scored for England during the inaugural women's cricket World Cup finals in 1973, won the Lifetime Achievement Award.