Nominations for the shortlist for BBC Sports Personality of the year close tomorrow, 15 November. Voters can name any British sports personality, but bookies have singled out Zara Phillips, golfer Darren Clarke, tennis player Andrew Murray, gymnast Beth Tweddle and cricketer Monty Panesar as the front runners.
A 10-strong shortlist, drawn from the public nominations along with votes cast by an expert panel, will be announced on 4 December – six days before the programme. Viewers of the live programme on 10 December will decide the eventual winner by telephone or text voting during the programme. “This will, we believe, be the fairest and most transparent way of running the competition,” said Carl Doran, programme editor.
Equestrian enthusiasts can still register a vote for Zara on the internet in time for it to count: “If Zara won the award this year it would be a huge boost for the equestrian world but to achieve this we need everyone to cast their vote,” said a spokesperson for the British Equestrian Federation.
After winning the individual gold medal at the European Three-Day Championships last year, Zara was crowned World Eventing Champion after a stunning performance on Toytown at the World Equestrian Games in Aachen this September.
This year’s winner will be disclosed during the live broadcast. In 2005, cricketer Andrew Flintoff won with 193,000 votes.
Nominations must be received by 15 November – tomorrow. To nominate Zara Phillips click here and enter her name in the top right corner.
