Christine Ohuruogu has been named 2008 Athlete of the Year for the second year in a row by the British Athletics Writers' Association.

The 24-year-old was voted Britain's top female athlete by members of the BAWA after winning the Olympic 400metres title in Beijing this summer.

Ohuruogu, from Mile End in east London, was Britain's only athletics gold medallist where she added the Olympic crown to her World and Commonwealth titles.

In the final she beat pre-race favourite and world number one Sanya Richards of the USA in 49.62seconds.

Ohuruogu was also joint winner of the 2008 Best Performance in a British Vest trophy presented by the sport's sponsors Aviva at BAWA's 46th Annual Awards dinner.

Ohuruogu, who also won the 2007 award, shared this year's trophy with wheelchair athlete David Weir who won four medals, including two golds, at the Paralympic Games.

Triple jumper Phillips Idowu received BAWA's male Athlete of the Year award in front of 400 guests at London's Royal Lancaster Hotel.

The 29-year-old from Hackney in London, broke Jonathan Edwards' British record to win the World Indoor Championships in March and later claimed the silver medal in Beijing when he missed out on gold by just 5cm.

Stephanie Twell won the junior female Athlete of the Year award.

The 19-year-old from Farnborough became the World Junior 1500m champion in Bydgoszcz, Poland, in July and was later selected for Britain's Olympic team after setting a personal best of 4mins 05.83secs.

The junior male Athlete of the Year Award went to David Forrester, the top European finisher at the World Cross Country Championships in March. The 18-year-old from Billinge went on to finish ninth over 1500m at the World Junior Championships.

Coach George Gandy was presented with the Ron Pickering Award for services to athletics.

Gandy is director of the UK Athletics High Performance Centre at Loughborough University and over his 36-year career he has guided many of Britain's top international distance runners.

He currently coaches Lisa Dobriskey, the Commonwealth 1500m champion who finished fourth in Beijing.