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Bradley Wiggins - BBC Sports Personality of the Year
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Grace Cullen 19 December 2012
BBC Sports Personality: Olympic champion and Tour de France winner Bradley Wiggins was crowned 2012 BBC Sports Personality of the Year at a glittering awards ceremony at the ExCeL Centre in London’s Docklands.
Wiggins earned the majority vote from the public in a year that saw him become the first British winner of the Tour de France, ten days before winning the Olympic time trial at London 2012.
Olympic heptathlon champion Jessica Ennis was in second place, with Olympic and US Open champion Andy Murray in third.
Paralympic champion Josef Craig was awarded Young Sports Personality of the Year, having become Britain’s youngest champion at the Games when he won the S7 400m freestyle in world record pace.
British Cycling Performance Director Dave Brailsford won Coach of the Year, while GB sitting volleyball player and survivor of the London 7/7 bombings Martine Wright was honoured with the Helen Rollason Award.
Lord Sebastian Coe was honoured with the Lifetime Achievement Award in recognition of his contribution to sport, both as an athlete and as Chair of the London Organising Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games.
Bobsleigh: The GB four-man team of John Jackson, Stuart Benson, Bruce Tasker and Ben Simons ended the year ranked fifth in the world after earning another top ten finish in the FIBT World Cup, finishing eighth in the fifth round at La Plagne.
GB also finished eighth in the two-man, with John Jackson and Bruce Tasker producing another strong performance.
The women’s duo of Paula Walker and Gillian Cooke finished in tenth place.
The next round of the FIBT World Cup will take place in Igls in January.
Boxing: The British Lionhearts returned to winning ways in the World Series of Boxing contest at Earl’s Court in London with a 4-1 victory over the German Eagles.
The result means the Lionhearts leapfrog the Eagles to go second in Group B of the World Series of Boxing with nine points and three wins from four fixtures.
Victories for Olympic silver medallist Fred Evans, fellow Olympian Andrew Selby, heavyweight Joe Joyce and Ireland’s European light heavyweight champion, Joe Ward, sealed the win to maintain the Lionhearts’ one hundred per cent home record, following its previous success against Dolce & Gabanna Italia Thunder at Celtic Manor in Wales.
The only disappointment on an excellent night for the British team was a contentious split decision loss for Liverpool’s Sam Maxwell in the lightweight category.
Rob McCracken, Performance Director of the British Lionhearts said: “It was another good performance by the team and I thought all five boxers did very well. Sam was very unlucky to be on the wrong side of a split decision which is a shame because he did well in his debut in the competition.
“To have won three from four and have a 100 per cent record in our home fixtures is a good start in the World Series of Boxing. The boxers are adjusting well to the different format and enjoying the experience.”
Cycling: Yorkshire has been confirmed as the host of the Grand Depart of the 2014 Tour de France by race organisers Amaury Sports Organisation.
Two stages will take place in the county on the 5 and 6 July 2014 before a third stage is hosted in London. The race will begin in Leeds before heading to the capital, which staged the Grand Depart in the 2007 edition of the Grand Tour.
Tour director Christian Prudhomme said: "Since the resounding success of the Grand Depart in London in 2007, we were very keen to return to the United Kingdom.
"Bradley Wiggins' historical victory last July and the enormous crowds that followed the cycling events in the streets of London during the Olympic Games encouraged us to go back earlier than we had initially planned.
"Yorkshire is a region of outstanding beauty, with breathtaking landscapes whose terrains offer both sprinters and attackers the opportunity to express themselves.
"We have encountered a phenomenal desire from the Yorkshire team to welcome the Tour de France and have no doubt that passion and support will be particularly evident for the Grand Depart of the Tour de France 2014."
Equestrian: Double Olympic champion Charlotte Dujardin’s remarkable year had ended on a high as she has won the World Cup freestyle event at Olympia.
The 27-year-old and her London 2012 horse Valegro earned a score of 87.975%, beating Germany’s Isabell Werth into second place, with Olympic team mate Carl Hester in third.
Skeleton: Kristan Bromley was the highest placed Brit at the fifth round of the FIBT Skeleton World Cup at La Plagne, finishing sixth in the final race before the Christmas break.
Team mate Ed Smith was 14th, while Dominic Parsons finished 17th on his World Cup debut.
In the women’s race GB’s Lizzy Yarnold and Shelley Rudman both finished in the top ten at the FIBT Skeleton World Cup fifth round at La Plagne. Donna Creighton was 19th.
Snowboarding: British number one Zoe Gillings recorded her second top ten finish of the season, finishing tenth at the World Cup in Telluride.
She said: "Deep down I wanted to better last week, but I am still delighted."
Swimming: Great Britain won six medals at the World Short Course Swimming Championships in Istanbul, including a gold medal from Hannah Miley in the 400m individual medley.
Miley beat Olympic champion Ye Shiwen of China in a championship record time of four minutes, 23.14 seconds. Miley also added a bronze medal in the 200m individual medley.
Olympic silver medallist Michael Jamieson lifted the first world medal of his career with 200m Breaststroke silver at the 2012 World Short Course Championships in Istanbul. Hungary’s Olympic champion Daniel Gyurta took gold in 2:01.35 but Jamieson found the strength to hold off Russia’s Viatcheslav Sinkevich (2:03.08) who settled for bronze.
Jemma Lowe claimed two bronze medals, in the 100m and 200m butterfly, while Francesca Halsall, competing in her only individual event of the Championships, stormed to silver in the 50m Freestyle.
British Swimming Head Coach Dave McNulty said: “I’m really pleased with the set of results from this Championships. I would have been happy with two, three or four medals but to come away with six is fantastic.
“I really wanted the swimmers to have more belief and that ‘can do’ attitude and I’ve been very impressed with them this week.”
