Cyclist Wiggins wins BBC’s top sports award
TOUR de France winner and Olympic gold medalist Bradley Wiggins last night became the second cyclist in two years to secure the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
Wiggins revealed that he thought his chances of picking up the prize were over when fellow Olympic gold winner Mo Farah was not named in the top three. Second place went to athlete Jessica Ennis while Scottish tennis star Andy Murray was third.
“To sit in the crowd and listen to Andy then Jess be announced, well my thoughts were Mo Farah had won it,” a surprised Wiggins said.
“For him to not get a look in is incredible. It is something to tell my kids because I think Mo will go own in history like Lord Coe.”
Lord Coe himself, a key figure behind the summer’s London 2012 Olympic Games, was given the lifetime achievement award.
Another of the many stars of this year’s Olympics, Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, scooped the overseas sports personality prize.
The top award was the most hotly contested in living memory. Wiggins’ gold in the Olympic time trials, achieved soon after he became the first Briton to win the Tour de France, saw him pip his rivals to the post. Cyclist Mark Cavendish won the award last year.
Dave Brailsford, who coached Team GB’s cyclists and Wiggins’ Sky team during the Tour, was named coach of the year.
Team GB’s Olympic and Paralympic athletes were named team of the year after winning 99 medals last summer.
Paralympian Martine Wright, who lost both her legs in the 7 July bombings (in 2005) won the Helen Rollason Award. And Josef Craig, the youngest gold medallist at the 2012 Paralympics, won the young personality award.
SPORTS WINNERS 2012
■ Bradley Wiggins: Sports Personality of the Year
■ Josef Craig: Young Sports Personality of the Year
■ Dave Brailsford: Coach of the Year
■ Usain Bolt: Overseas Personality
■ Martine Wright: Helen Rollason prize for success in the face of adversity