The best night of television is set to take place this Sunday, Sports Personality Of The Year! Firstly congratulations to AP McCoy who will be collecting the Lifetime Achievement award. Secondly I do think they should review the options so that you can vote for whoever you would like. This would make the competition much more interesting but may make it a little tricky to predict the top three from a betting point of view.
The bookies favourite this year is Andy Murray after he headed the Davis Cup team to their first success in 79 years. Andy would become the fourth person to win the award twice, can you name the others? (Answer at the bottom of the blog). Now I am pretty strongly against this as although this is a great achievement, and the Davis Cup team should undoubtedly win the team award, Andy Murray has not had an outstanding year in Grand Slam tennis. Now I may be a sore loser as I did back him to get to all four Grand Slam finals, which he failed miserably at, but I think the award should be given to an individual has had an amazing year. Plus has a personality but then that is a whole different board game!
Next up we have Jessica Ennis-Hill. She has had a baby and become World Champion. Voting for her will keep the feminists happy, a working mother who has come back after giving birth, one of the most natural things in the world, to her job successfully. If Ennis manages to claim the Olympic title as well next year then she could put herself at the head of the 2016 shortlist but this year, no.
Motor racing drivers have a brilliant record in this competition and Lewis Hamilton is predicted a top three finish this year. He won last year and Andy Murray won in 2013 so this does lead me to believe that maybe we not have anyone else in this country worth voting for?
Another sport which has been popular in the polls in the last few years is cycling, with Chris Hoy, Mark Cavendish and Bradley Wiggins all recent winners. This year's Tour de France victor, Chris Froome, is also in the running for the 2015 trophy as well as Lizzie Armistead, who took out the world road race championship. Froome was the first name that popped into my head when I considered this year's winner. I have managed a cheeky bet on him to reach the top three at 9-1 so come on MAMILs (google it), vote for Froome!
Others who could take the title include footballer Lucy Bronze (the team finished third not first in the Women's World Cup), Mo Farah (who is tied up in a drugs scandal), Tyson Fury (who actually probably achieved the greatest sporting moment of the year when causing one of the biggest upsets by beating Wladmir Klitschko to his World Champion title but has a bad relationship with the media), Adam Peaty (swimmer), Max Whitlock (gymnastics), Greg Rutherford (Long Jump) and Kevin Sinfield (Rugby League). None of the four at the end of that list should cause much of a ripple among the general public due to the fact that they either compete in sports that are not often on the television or taking the forefront of the sporting headlines.
So basically this year maybe the message to all sports stars should be - TRY HARDER Now I am off to eat pizza and drink wine instead of going to the gym...!
Multiple winners are: Nigel Mansell, Damon Hill and Henry Cooper
