Lewis Hamilton favourite as BBC aims to hit right tone with musical Spoty | Paul MacInnes

Sadly for the residents of Salford, there will be no opportunity to watch the nation’s finest athletes totter in heels and tails through the windswept foyer of an out-of-town conference venue. Another victim of the Covid-19 crisis, this year’s BBC Sports Personality of the Year will be a socially distant affair.

While Spoty’s tour of Britain has in recent years taken in the P&J Live complex in Aberdeen and Birmingham’s Resorts World Arena, on Sunday it will return to the home of BBC Sport in Media City. There will be few guests from the great and the good of British and world sport. There will be no gala crowd compromised of lucky local people. In some small measure of compensation, however, there will at least be Rick Astley.

A live performance from the 80s pop legend and internet punchline is one of the many tweaks the BBC has made to a format now on its 67th edition.

Lewis Hamilton is the odds-on favourite to win the main prize, from a shortlist of six who include the jockey Hollie Doyle and the snooker world champion, Ronnie O’Sullivan. Organisers have already announced that the world sports star of the year is the Russian UFC lightweight champion, Khabib Nurmagomedov, who retired this year after an undefeated career. There are new prizes to take account of this unprecedented year, however.

Marcus Rashford is to be presented with a panel special award for his work off the field in 2020. Raising awareness of child food poverty before helping to create a national network to supply food to those hungry children, as well as forcing the government into two U-turns, the Manchester United striker proved beyond argument the power of sports stars to effect change in society.

Another hero of the pandemic, Captain Tom Moore, has given his name to a second new prize. The Captain Tom: young unsung hero award, will have the war veteran and multimillion-pound fundraiser honour a member of a younger generation for their contribution to community sport. The winner of the adult unsung hero award is still to be announced, as are regular prizes for team of the year and coach of the year.

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Sports Personality of the Year shortlist

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The six contenders for Sunday night’s main award

Stuart Broad Passed 500 Test wickets for his career, having caused a stir with his reaction to being dropped for the first Test. Also enjoyed a renaissance with the bat and at 34 stressed he has plenty more in him.

Hollie Doyle Had her first winner at Royal Ascot on 33-1 shot Scarlet Dragon and at Windsor in August became the first woman to ride five winners at one meeting. Won twice on Champions Day.

Tyson Fury Took the WBC heavyweight title off Deontay Wilder in February with a seventh-round knockout, a superb performance against an opponent of the American’s calibre. In line to fight Anthony Joshua next year.

Lewis Hamilton Took his seventh world title, equalling Michael Schumacher’s record, with his fourth in a row. He now has 95 wins, four more than the German’s previous record, and has extended his pole record to 98. 

Jordan Henderson Captained Liverpool to their first league title since 1990, by a margin of 18 points, at which point the Reds were English, European and world champions. Helped lead the game’s response to the pandemic.

Ronnie O’Sullivan His sixth world title at the Crucible made him the oldest winner, at 40, since the 45-year-old Ray Reardon won in 1978. 

Unsurprisingly, there will be logistical changes to deal with for a production that goes out live. Alex Scott is to join the presenting team of Clare Balding, Gary Lineker and Gabby Logan, but they will all be performing to a largely empty hall in the Dock 10 studios.

There will be live music with Astley and the BBC’s Sound of 2020, Celeste, performing. Celeste will sing Nat King Cole’s Smile during the part of the ceremony that remembers sporting figures who have died in the past 12 months.

Astley will perform Every One of Us, a song originally recorded to benefit Children in Need and a de facto anthem for the unsung hero awards.

Elsewhere, there will be lots of athletes expressing their wish they could be there on the night. While some nominees will be in attendance, the majority are set to appear from their homes and instead of a studio audience a wall of 700 screens will present a virtual crowd of sports stars and former winners.

The need for precautions in the face of Covid-19 will spare the BBC one of the annual talking points over whether the awards had succeeded in attracting enough big names to the event. Instead there will be controversy over a big name who does not want to be on the shortlist.

Tyson Fury, the heavyweight world boxing champion, has twice asked to have his name removed from the shortlist, claiming he needs no more validation from the BBC having already won the affection of the British public.

The award, though, is voted for by the public, live during the show, and there are those who believe Fury’s stunt is more about complaints made against his nomination in previous years owing to a record of misogynist and homophobic remarks.

The other nominees are Stuart Broad, after a superb Test summer, and Jordan Henderson, the captain of a Liverpool side who won the Premier League by 18 points.

After claiming his seventh Formula One world title this year, bringing him level with Michael Schumacher as the most successful driver in the sport, Hamilton is as short as 1-2 with some bookmakers.

This year Hamilton increased his political activism, becoming an unflinching advocate of the Black Lives Matter movement. Whether such activism will be controversial with the British public, or make Hamilton the people’s champion will become clear at 10pm on Sunday night.

source: theguardian.com