Nafi became the first European to claim the women’s award since Croatian high jumper Blanka Vlasic in 2010 and only the second heptathlete in award history after Jackie Joyner-Kersee in 1994.

The Geography undergraduate began her season by claiming gold in the pentathlon at the European Indoor Athletics Championships in Belgrade where she set a world-leading total of 4870. In August she continued her title haul at the IAAF World Championships in London with gold in the heptathlon with a solid 6784 score.

But the standout performance of her season came at the Gotzis Hypo-Meeting in May where she became just the fourth heptathlete in history to score over 7000 points. The 23-year-old moved to third on the world all-time lists behind Joyner-Kersee and Carolina Kluft with a score of 7013.

Thiam set five outdoor lifetime bests – and a national javelin record of 59.32m – across those two days in Gotzis and also equalled her lifetime best of 1.98m in the high jump.