South West Londoner’s Joel Durston takes to the streets of Wimbledon to gauge how this year’s SPOTY nominees have fared with the public.
Britain is gearing up for BBC’s prestigious Sports Personality of the Year award.
The frontrunners this year seem to be cyclist Mark Cavendish, long-distance runner Mo Farah and golfer Rory McIlroy.
But what do South West Londoner’s make of the SPOTY nominees? Joel Durston took to the streets of Wimbledon to find out.
John Tackin, Wimbledon
“I think it is unfair that no women have been nominated because if they are there it can inspire other people to do sport.”
Prince Sun, Wimbledon
“My favourite is probably Mo Farah. He’s done a lot, won a lot a competitions, like the Gold and Silver this year.”
Mark Duncan, Wimbledon
“It’s all sexism. It’s just crap. Talk about something worth talking about. It’s good to be recognised but so what? What do you want a medal? The Olympics is all money that we, the taxpayers, have thrown in. Give Sebastian Coe a paper bag so he can take it all. And he’s Lord Coe, now!”
Mohammad Haroun, Wimbledon
“I don’t know about the decision not to include any women. You need to encourage people to do sport. Rebecca Adlington has done well and brought awareness about swimming.”
Jordan Smith, Wimbledon
“I’m going to say to a certain extent it may seem a bit unfair. I think Amir Khan should win and I think he will win it too. He deserves it. He’s done a lot for the boxing industry. Me, personally I would have said George Groves, though. I am a bit shocked he’s not on there, to be honest. They are two boxers that I personally think should be in there.”
David Tanner, Wimbledon
“Andy Murray’s selection is a joke. And golf should not get three. Luke Donald may be number one but its majors that matter and he has none. Cook has my vote.”
Jeremy Brown, Wimbledon
“I like Luke Donald because he’s topped the money list for the Europa which is outrageous. Dominated the whole season and been superb with something like 15 consecutive top 10 finishes.”
John Purbeck, Clapham
“I’ll go for Alistair Cook because he’s on course to break all England batting records and he’s still pretty young.”
Jenny King Wimbledon
“I was disappointed to see that no women were on the list, but then, I suppose, I couldn’t think of a really successful woman this year straight away, so maybe it’s right. And you can always get into kind of tokenism if you were putting women in who haven’t done that.”
