BBC Sports Personality of the Year 2015

It is that time of year again for the nominees for this year's BBC Sports Personality of the Year, following the low point of 2011 when not a single female British sports person made the short list there are four on this year's shortlist, only one less than the Olympic year (when there were 12 nominees) but the most in the now traditional 10 person shortlist.

So who are they:

Gareth Bale the Welsh international, had a successful first season for Real Madrid which saw him scoring the winning goal in the Copa del Rey, the second of his team's four goals in the Champions League final in the first city derby final, the first time a Welshman had scored in that match. At the start of this season he helped his team lift their third trophy in his time with his team when his assist led to to Cristiano Ronaldo's goal in their 2-0 win the UEFA Super Cup. The last footballer to win was Ryan Giggs in 2009 the sport has five wins.

Charlotte Dujardain of "dancing horses" fame, didn't get nominated in 2012 despite her double gold and Olympic record performances on Valegro. She followed this up with double gold in Individual and Spécial Dressage in last year's European Championships, but this year became the first British Equestrian to hold Olympic, European and World Titles simultaneously when she and Valegro again combined for the double of Individual and Special Dressage. The last equestrian (not racing) to win was Zara Philips in 2006 Olympic Equestrian events have three wins none in dressage.

Carl Froch in boxing since 2006 with exception of 2 periods that total about 12 months has held one of other of the world titles at Super-Middleweight. However, despite those years of success this is the first time that he has been nominated for SPoTY, other boxers of course have been nominated in a sport that we have a good history of. The last boxer to win was Joe Calzaghe in 2007 the sport has five wins.

Kelly Gallagher is the visually impaired Paralympian skier who took Great Britain's first ever Winter Paralympic gold medal along with her guide Charlotte Evans in the Women's Super-G. She comes from my home town of Bangor. No Paralympian has ever won SPoTY, the nearest any have come is Tanni Grey-Thompson who was third in 2000. No skier has ever won, the last Winter Sports win was in 1984 for Jayne Torville and Christopher Dean.

Lewis Hamilton has twice stood on the second step of the SPoTY podium on his debut season in F1 matching his position in the drivers' championship that year. The following year when he won the championship he again came 2nd in SPoTY. This year marks his second F1 title during which he took 11 wins making him the most successful British winner with 33 wins in total, which included two runs of five and four consecutive wins. The last Formula 1 driver to win was Damon Hill in 1996 the sport has six winners.

Rory McIllroy makes it two for residents of North Down in the top 10 this year. Rory secured back to back golfing majors when he picked up the Open and PGA Championship. By lifting the Claret Jug at Royal Liverpool he became only the second player in Open history to lift the silver medal for low amateur and then the main prize. In so doing he became the first European to win three of the four majors, and joins only Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods in doing so before the age of 25. In between the two majors he also picked up his first World Golf Championship event and return to world number one. The last golfer to win was Nick Faldo in 1989 the sport has two winners.

Jo Pavey proved that motherhood and age are no barrier to being a successful athlete. Ten months after giving birth to her second child and just over a month shy of her 41st birthday she became the oldest woman to win a European Athletics title in the 10,000m, going one place better in Zurich that 2 years earlier in Helsinki. She had earlier in the month taken bronze in the Commonwealth Games 5,000m. The last athlete to win was Kelly Holmes in 2004 the sport is the most successful in SPoTY history with 17 wins.

Adam Peaty is the new golden boy of British swimming. First he took gold in 100m breastroke and 4x100m medley, and silver in 50m breaststoke at the Commonwealth Games (both wins in Games Records). Within 10 days he was in Berlin at the European Championships taken four golds in the three disciplines from the commonwealth plus the 4x100 mixed medley. He also secured two world records in the 50m and the mixed relay with Jemma Lowe, Chris walker-Hebborn and Fran Halsall. The last swimmer to win was Anita Lonsborough in 1962 the sport has two winners.

Max Whitlock the gymnast kicked off a very successful year at the European Championship with Pommel Gold and Team Silver. Before taking five medals at the Commonwealth Games All Around, Team and Floor Gold, Pommel Silver and Parallel Bars Bronze. But in qualification at the world in Nanjing he seemed to have failed, not qualifying for any apparatus finals, nor the individual. But after the team competition Nile Wilson had to withdrawal from the all-around. Max who was third in the GB team qualifying stepped up putting his poor qualification behind him, performed well on all six pieces to take silver behind the five time world champion Kohei Uchimura. No Gymnast have ever won the closest was Beth Tweddle coming third in 2006.

Lizzy Yarnold is a women who throws herself literally head first into her sport. For she is the most successful female winter Olympian in what is fast becoming GBs most successful Winter Olympic Sport. For the fourth games in a row the female skeleton team have medalled and for the second time in a row it is gold. Lizzy entered Sochi as favourite having secured the Skeleton World Cup Title winning four of the eight races. No Skeleton racer has ever won and the last Winter Sports winners were Torville and Dean in 1984.

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It is another day at the Paralympics and the golds just keep on coming to keep the Royal Mail stamp designers busy.

The first gold of the day took the total for the Paralympic Games to 20, or two bullseyes for the winner of number 20. It wasn't a tense matter of would Britain win gold in the compound archery final at the Royal Artillery Barracks at Woolwich, but which one would win gold. Defending champion Dani Brown was up against Mel Clarke. It came down to the last arrow with Clarke needing a 10 to wrest the title from her British team mate, but she shot a seven her worst of the final to leave Brown as the champion once more. It is still an improvement for Clarke who took bronze in Beijing. She'll get her gold post box in Lothersdale, Yorkshire.

The Lancastrians didn't have to wait long for a bit of roses balance. The next gold was over to the pool in the women's 100m backstroke S8 where Heather Frederiksen (a bit of a Becky Adlington lookalike) took gold in 1:17.00, ahead of hotly tipped American Jessica Long. It was a defense of the title she won in Beijing, though in the other three events she medaled at in Beijing, Long had won gold. Frederiksen had been an able bodied swimmer before an accident in an open water event caused her a nervous disorder. She'll bring a gold post box to Leigh.

Where else would the next one come from but over at Greenwich Park in the Dressage and Sophie Christiansen in Grade 1A became a triple gold medalist with her freestyle dressage. Another gold post box for Sophie heading to Maidenhead.

Then in the Olympic Stadium David Weir stepped up for the second of his gold medals in the men's 1500m T54. He played in very well strategically, always sitting in the top three but ready to take it on from the bell and from that point he was never headed.

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It may the Sunday in the middle of the Paralympics, but just like their Olympic counterparts the Paralympians were not giving the Royal Mail stamp designers a day of rest.

Over at Eton Dorney there was the first gold of the day. The Mixed Coxed Four LTAMix4+ of Pam Relph, Naomi Riches, David Smith and James Roe and cox Lily van den Broecke took the gold to add to their world championship. Gold post boxes will appear in Weston Turville (for Pam), Marlow (Naomi), Stratford upon Avon (James), Aviemore (David) and Oxford (Lily).

Over in the Olympic Stadium there was a young 21 year-old going for his second medal of these games in his preferred event. Aled Davies in the Discus F42 threw 46.16m in the final round after already a guaranteed gold to add to his bronze in the shot putt. So there will be a gold post box in Bridgend for the Welsh thrower. His medal was presented to him by the future Princess of Wales, HRH The Duchess of Cambridge.

Then it was over to the velodrome where there chances in all three events on the final day. In an all British final in the men's tandem sprint saw Anthony Kappes and his pilot Craig MacLean take the first race. They then took the banking round and jumped with over a lap and half to go than Neil Fachie and pilot Barney Storey had to settle for only silver today and had sat up before the bell.

Next up the gold rush headed into the Aquatic Center in the women's 200m Freestyle S14 Jessica-Jane Applegate was only 4th at the half way stage and third at 150, but in the final 50 metres she came through to  touch out with a win by 0.55 secs.

At Greenwich Park Sophie Christiansen onboard Janeiro 6, surely a horse named for four years time scored 82.7% in Grade 1A Dressage.

 

Sophie's win along with Natasha Baker in her class yesterday and the three silver in the other classes also ensured that Team GB yet again took the team gold. So Lee Pearson wins his 10th with Sophie Wells and Debbie Criddle also forming part of the team. Gold has been the exclusive domain of the GB equestrian team since Dressage was introduced to the Paralympics in 1996.

Finally back on the track in the last race of the night it was time for another GB Paralympics poster boy to follow in the footsteps of Mo Farrah and take men's T54 5000m gold. Dave Weir did not disappoint coming into the back straight of the last lap he was starting to come up on the rear wheel of the leading Korean and then with 200m to go he went on the attack and surged away in the last 100m to win with a gap between his rear wheel and the chair behind. So a gold post box for Wallington, Surrey.

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Day three and the GB Paralympic gold rush continues so too do the stamps, though not until Monday. It really was a Superhuman Saturday

First up in the velodrome there was success in the men's B 1km for Neil Fachie and his sighted pilot Barney Storey (yes keeping the gold rush in the family is Sarah Storey's husband). Neil gets a gold post box in Aberdeen and Barney as well as getting a gold medal (a first for the pilot riders) gets a gold post box in Disley, Chesire.

The track produced our next medal with our very own homegrown bladerunner Richard Whitehead in men's T42 200m. Richard is a marathon runner normally, but there is no event over that distance for his class. So not wanting to have the opportunity to compete before a home ground stolen for him he asked the IPC what he had to do, they said run the 200m, so he did and broke his own world record to win in 24.38. He certainly did have to steal away his medal as his gold post box will appear in Robin Hood country in Nottingham.

Greenwich Park saw a continuation of gold in the dressage ring from the Olympics. However, not in the form of Lee Pearson who only managed to add silver to his 9 golds so far. But Natasha Baker in Grade II took a first equestrian gold for GB Paralympics. Uxbridge, home of Brunel University (not Abraham Lincoln University my American friends cf Olympic Opening Ceremony) will be the location of her gold post box.

The gold kept on coming not just in the velodrome, but also in the Storey household. Yeah Sarah was back to her winning best in the women's 500m time trial C5. So if Disley can manage a third post box to be painted gold they will all be due to the Storeys. Sarah isn't finished yet as she will be looking for more on the road at Brands Hatch.

In the pool the whole debate about whether Victoria Arlen was in the wrong category as for the first 300m she was racing just ahead of Ellie Simmonds in the women's S6 400m freestyle. In the last hundred Ellie made her move and smashed the world record by 5 seconds 5:19.17, Arlen whose record it was also smashed it just 1.01 seconds down in silver. So Ellie not only just gets her face staring down from bill boards but her own gold post box in Aldridge, Walsall.

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No five day week for the Royal Mail stamp design team as Team GB continue to bring on the Gold rush.

Over at Greenwich Park our show jumping team of Nick Skelton, Scott Brash, Ben Maher and Peter Charles were taken to a jump off by the Dutch team, but they had three clear rounds in  the jump off while the Dutch had three fences down between two riders so they couldn't discard both.

The gold paint will be out for post boxes in Peebles (Scott Brash), Alton (Peter Charles),  of Bishops Stortford (Ben Maher) and Alcester (Nick Skelton)

 The second stamp is for someone who already has a share of one. But this one is on his own. Some thought that when he was picked instead of Sir Chris Hoy who was looking to defend three golds from Beijing that they were stopping a legend. But Jason Kenny has he second gold from these Games in individual sprint to go with the team one, his third overall and going with the silver in this event four years ago behind only Hoy. So Bolton will get a second golden post box.

We talked about this team being Team GB's greatest team. Well with six more days of competition they are one short of the target from Beijing with three very good shouts in the cycling tomorrow with Hoy in the Keirin, Victoria Pendeton in the women's sprint and Laura Trott leading the Omnium after day 1.There are also the Brownlees in the triathlon, Robbie Grabenz in the high jump plus the chance of more horsey gold in the Team Dressage. So we are close to nut just equaling Beijing but zooming past that total.

It's Team GB & Norn Iron

It was good to see Alan Campbell power over the last few hundred metres of the men's single sculls this morning for a number of reasons. Firstly he has only just recovered from knee surgery but also because his that oft forgotten part of Team GB's name. Yes the Coleraine lad was proud to remind viewers who were able to watch his post race interview with Sir Steve of the Five Golds that he was Northern Irish and wanted to thank the team at the Sports Council for Northern Ireland in Belfast.

Elsewhere Emma Pooley showed that she had learnt how to ride that circuit from the women's road race well when she secured the silver in the women's time trail of the finishing circuit she twice launched attacks over on Sunday. She finished behind and American called Armstrong, but we're quite sure that Lance hasn't undergone gender reassignment to compete as this was Kristin Armstrong who had ended the 23.5 km tough uphill then down again time trail 24 seconds ahead of the Brit. Pooely was 4 seconds ahead at the intermediate check at the Wall 10.8km in but as the commentators said due to her diminutive climbers stature she had to make up time on the climb for the hard work on the descent to the finish.

Yesterday individual bronze for Zara Philips' replacement Tina Cook (must be the name these games) and the team bronze were also won by the eventers at the equestrian centre added to the British medal tally.