Voting is now open for Sports Journalists’ Association members to select the Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team of the Year.
The SJA is staging the annual British Sports Awards at the Grand Connaught Rooms in London’s Covent Garden on Thursday, December 11, when hundreds of leading figures from sport and media will gather to celebrate another outstanding year of sporting achievement.
With the generous sponsorship of The National Lottery, this glitzy event will be a double anniversary: for The National Lottery, they will be marking 20 years of transforming British sport; for the SJA, this will be our 65th edition of the original national sports awards.
The event will be hosted by our president, Sir Michael Parkinson, and Jim Rosenthal and Sybil Ruscoe will be leading the presentations.
But it will be SJA members who will determine who wins the coveted 2014 Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team awards.
Just as in 2012 and 2013, the cascade of gold medals and world titles has continued during another outstanding year for British sporting achievement across a wide range of sports – which makes the task awaiting the members of the Sports Journalists’ Association all the more difficult.
Each autumn since 1949, members of our Association, the sports writers, editors, photographers and broadcasters who have worked with the nation’s sporting heroes and heroines throughout the year, have cast their selections – first, second and third choice – in a unique poll.
That time has come again, with SJA members really spoiled for choice.
Only full SJA members may vote.
The SJA’s 2013 Sportswoman of the Year, Christine Ohuruogu, received her trophy from The National Lottery chief executive, Andy Duncan
You must place your top three contenders in all three categories – Sportsman, Sportswoman and Team of the Year. You may only vote once, and you can choose whether to submit your vote online (which takes a matter of minutes) or by post. But you cannot use both, and duplicate votes will both be eliminated.
Voting closes at noon on Friday, November 28.
Below are three prompt lists of some of the leading contenders, champions all.
There are no recommendations and nor is there a pecking order. This is merely a prompt to highlight some of the British sporting achievers of 2014 to succeed our 2013 winners Andy Murray, Christine Ohuruogu and the British and Irish Lions.
Who you vote for is entirely up to you, whether they are included on these lists or not (although you will need to ensure that you follow the rules on what qualifies in the team category).
Indeed, if you want to make a case to lobby your fellow SJA members to vote for someone, whether included on this list or not, you are encouraged to write a 500-word piece for this website to make your argument, just email it to stevendownes@sportsjournalists.co.uk.
There will be a number of features coming up on the site from SJA members in the next few days highlighting why they will be voting for their chosen sporting achiever of 2014.
In the meantime, here’s a few reminders…
SJA Sportsman of the Year contenders
Mo Farah – European 5,000 and 10,000m title-winner
Carl Froch delivers the winning blow against George Groves in their world title bout
Carl Froch – retained the world super-middleweight boxing championship
Adam Gemili – won 200m and sprint relay gold at Europeans, to add to brace of Commonwealth silvers
Dan Greaves – won F42/44 discus at Commonwealth Games and European championships
Nick Matthew – squash world champion added Commonwealth title to his CV
Rory McIlroy – won The Open and US PGA golf majors, as well as member of winning Ryder Cup team
Adam Peaty – won four European swimming titles and broke 50m breaststroke world record to add to two Glasgow golds
Greg Rutherford – first Briton for 50 years to simultaneously hold Olympic, European and Commonwealth long jump titles
Max Whitlock – three gymnastics gold medals at Commonwealth Games, plus gold and silver at Europeans
Bradley Wiggins – our 2012 Sportsman of the Year won cycling’s world time trial title
SJA Sportswoman of the Year contenders
Aged 16, Claudia Frangapane won four Commonwealth gold medals
Nicola Adams – first Olympic women’s boxing champion in 2014 won Commonwealth gold
Charlotte Dujardin – dressage rider won two individual gold medals at world championships
Claudia Frangapane – aged 16, she won four gymnastics golds at Commonwealth Games
Kelly Gallagher – won Britain’s first gold medal in partially sighted category in Super G skiing at Winter Paralympics
Fran Halsall – sprint swimmer won five golds in 2014 at European championships and Commonwealth Games
Frankie Jones – won six Commonwealth gymnastic medals for Wales, including ribbon gold
Golden smile: Lizzy Yarnold, Olympic champion
Jo Pavey – 40-year-old mother won her first international title, taking European 10,000m gold in Zurich
Jo Rowsell – three-time gold medallist in 2014, winning individual pursuit world and Commonwealth titles
Emily Scarratt – top points scorer at women’s Rugby World Cup, including 16pts to help England win final
Lizzy Yarnold – Olympic gold medal-winner in skeleton at Sochi Winter Games
SJA Team of the Year contenders
For the Team of the Year, the rules require a team – a unit of two or more persons of both or either sex, competing in the same event – who have contributed most in the year to prestige of British sport on the international stage
England men’s gymnastics – won all-round team gold in artistic gymnastics at Glasgow Commonwealth Games
Emphatic winners, Europe’s Ryder Cup team enjoy their moment of glory
British triathlon – squad of Lucy Hall, Vicky Holland, Jodie Stimpson, Jonathan and Alistair Brownlee won the mixed relay gold medals at both world championships and Commonwealth Games
England women’s rugby – World Cup-winners
European golf – emphatic Ryder Cup-winners at Gleneagles, captained by Paul McGinley
Great Britain men’s eight – rowing world champions
Great Britain men’s four – Mohammed Sbihi, George Nash, Alex Gregory and Andy Triggs-Hodge took world title in Amsterdam
Great Britain 4x100m mixed medley relay – swimmers broke world record to win European championship in Berlin
Great Britain women’s 4x100m relay team – sprinters won European title, breaking the 34-year-old national record
Great Britain women’s team pursuit – Jo Rowsell, Laura Trott, Katie Archibald and Elinor Barker won the world title for Britain for the sixth time at Cali in February
Helen Glover and Heather Stanning – rowing world champions, women’s pair
And to get you into the mood for the 2014 SJA British Sports Awards, sponsored by The National Lottery, here’s a brief video of our 2013 gala event:
