posted Dec 10, 2007

How Shanaze Reade didn't make the young sportsman shortlist I'll never know. No real complaints about Tom Daley winning the award, but Reade should have at least been on the shortlist.

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posted Dec 10, 2007

Oi lay off the Egland Rugby team, we have been battling for years to get prominence for our sport and to have it come up first in the programme was great, fluke or no fluke, (you cannot fluke your way into a WC Final, a Keirin final yes maybe).

Lets not get too carried away with our track cycling team, we all know that road cycling is the most important "discipline", the Tours, classics and World Road Champion have much higher pecking order than any track event with the exception of the Olympics. Lets not forget that Tommy Simpson won the BBC award when he won the world championship, Nicole Cooke was nominated last year for her road exploits. Winning 4 sprints does not compare nor does a few minutes in a pursuit.

Spain, Italy, France, Belgium, Holland, etc are all great cycling nations whose emphasis is on the road as are their best cyclists.

Get a Mens world road champion or mens Tour de France winner and we'd soon have another nomination until then the trackies will continue to complain, (Much as they do in Spain by the way about Juan Llaneras who one year couldnt even get a pro contract despite being World Points Champion)

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posted Dec 10, 2007

AF4PM - i think one of your sports advantages is having a rugby player on the judging panel. This is obviously a huge influence. In the interests of fairness and impartiality i would also like to know how you get on to this 12 person panel (or off of it for that matter).

The judging panel consists of: Lord Sebastian Coe, Dame Tanni Grey-Thompson, Sir Trevor Brooking, Clare Balding, Alan Hansen, Greg Rusedski, Nick Faldo, David Coulthard, Sir Steve Redgrave, Dame Kelly Holmes, Jonathan Davies, Barry McGuigan

If i was to create a relegation element to this list then i have to say Clare Balding and Greg Rusedski would be in it, closely followed by Jonathan Davies. Things may have been been different if say Chris Boardman (Track world champion, Road TdF stage winner and yellow jersey wearer) were on the panel.

That said, i can understand your comments about distinguishing between track and road cycling, but i don't think that can be a valid judging argument, especially when you consider cycling is likely to yield the largest medal haul of any british sport at next years olympics - maybe it is beijing that is needed to launch the sports profile in the publics conciousness.

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posted Dec 10, 2007

I totally agree with the comments made about the poor judging on BBC sports personality of the year, how can the England Rugby team( which I 'm a huge fan) walk away with an award, being the losing team in the world cup but the cyclists get nothing,what a swizz. Also why have a phone vote for Sports personality, won by Joe(he is the best & deserves it)but did anyone notice that by the time they had shut the phone lines down the real trophy was in Las Vegas ready to be picked up, isn't it lucky that Lewis Hamilton didn't have a surprise win , oh he hasn't won the title yet has he!!!Swizz number 2.

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posted Dec 10, 2007

AFarrell4PM makes a fair point about our track cyclists v. the road. However, don't lose sight of the fact that a number of our track stars aren'texactly "nobodies" on the road. Cav is no mean performer with 11 road victories to his name as a rookie with T-Mobile (R.I.P.) and Bradley Wiggins has also been on the top step of the (road) podium this year. Geraint Thomas finished his first Tour de France this year and is the first ever Welshman to finish it. This makes our track
successes all the more credible as they are partially achieved by riders mixing both road and track disciplines.
To say "winning 4 sprints does not compare nor does a few minutes in a pursuit" is not really a fair comment when the British track team go on racking up successes year after year in Olympic, Worlds and World Cup events. That is more than can be said at present for just about any other sport, rugby, athletics, boxing et al (and apologies there to the likes of rowing and a few others if indeed I'm not doing them a similar justice, if deserved, to my chosen sport of cycling).

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posted Dec 12, 2007

Here's another article shaming the BBC's pathetic behaviour in leaving out Vicky Pendelton. BBC stuffies - please read this!

http://sport.guardian.co.uk/cycling/comment/0,,2225404,00.html

Did you know that Christine "memory loss" Ohogourogogohourago actually received the LOWEST votes ever recorded on the SPOTY?
Just how wrong do the BBC have to get things before they cotton on that they are out of step?

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posted Dec 12, 2007

amazingGanman, the real trophy was in Birmingham. They just had replicas in Las Vegas.

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posted Dec 13, 2007

How can Sports Journalists award Victoria Pendleton the Sportswoman of the Year to go with all her World Championship medals and World Cup medals yet the SPOTY panel didn't rate her in top ten?

Maybe we should nominate her next year in the unsung heroes category?

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posted Dec 13, 2007

I thought exactly the same thing paulthebike. The SPOTY shortlist is decided by Sports Journalists & Editors according to the BBC. So, how can 'their' association have such different opinions to their members. Care to comment BBC?

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posted Dec 23, 2007

I have stated before that for 20 + years SPOTY is a farce because they (BBC) only cover limited sports.
My main sport (cycling)is mentioned fairly often for some trivia or other on drugs.
The selection this year (if true) of using 30 media papers and a sports panel to come to a "Best 10" for the public to vote on is a step in the right direction.

I did smile at beckham and rooney getting only one nomination each and behind Pendelton's 5 and Cooke's 6.
So a big "well done" to the Guardian for nominating both.

All we have to do now is watch all the Drugie's that the BBC put on as commentators and there are many.

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