REBECCA ADLINGTON and Mark Cavendish have been voted sportswoman and sportsman of the year for 2011 by the Sports Journalists Association.

Swimmer Adlington claimed gold in the 800 metres at the World Championships in Shanghai in July. World champion triathlete Helen Jenkins and jockey Hayley Turner were runners-up to Adlington in the poll of SJA members

Cavendish won the world road race title in Copenhagen having won the green jersey at the 2011 Tour de France in the summer. US Open golf champion Rory McIlroy and 5,000 metres athletics world champion Mo Farah were the runners-up in the men’s category.

Batsman Jonathan Trott received the award for Team of the Year on behalf of the England cricket squad, who started the year by winning the Ashes Down Under and then whitewashed India in a home series en route to becoming the world’s number one-ranked Test team.

Sarah Stevenson, who went to South Korea and won a world title in taekwondo – that country’s national sport – was presented with the SJA Committee Award.

RHYTHMIC gymnast Francesca Jones will represent Great Britain at the Olympic test event next month, British Gymnastics announced yesterday. The five-time British champion and 2010 Commonwealth Games hoop silver medallist was the highest ranked Briton in the 31st World Championships in Montpellier in September and takes the individual place.