Sunday evening saw the presentation of the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year award for 2007. Normally I ignore the event as, more often then not, it appears to go to which athlete has the best PR agent and participates in the most popular sport. This year's list, as usual, consisted of a number of people who hadn't actually won anything. Whilst I appreciate that the award is named Sports "Personality" and not "Most Successful Sportsman" they're not about to give it to the bloke from the local darts team on the basis that he knows some good jokes and makes pleasant company over a pint of bitter. This year, however, someone remembered that bike racing is not a minority sport. You don't have to scour Eastern European TV to find coverage and 126,000 people pitched up to watch the World Superbike round at Brands Hatch in August. Fitting then, that Britain's James Toseland, crowned World Champion in October, was included in the list.

 

Now don't me wrong; I knew the chances of him winning were slim. After all the award is voted for by the public, and what do they know? The smart money was on Lewis Hamilton to take a landslide victory based upon him not winning a World Championship. So what's Button done wrong not to be in the list? I jest. Slightly. Remarkable as his debut season has been, you couldn't help but think that the incessant media hype was going to swing the voting in his favour. Not so it seems as he had to make do with second place.

 

The award eventually went to Joe Calzaghe and, even biased in Toseland's favour, I think it's well deserved. Nominated last year, the Welsh boxer has been World Champion for ten years. Think about that. That's 120 months - not just turning up for one event, putting up a plucky fight (we're British after all) and finishing second. Calzaghe is unbeaten in 44 fights and has defended his WBO Super Middleweight belt a staggering 21 times. When he defeated Mikkel Kessler in November he became the undisputed Champion by taking the Dane's WBA and WBC belts from him.

 

I've seen people posting on forums questioning how Calzaghe warrants the award with relatively little public activity (in comparison to other sports). Yes, putting two rugby players in the list might seem logical after they played so many games to reach the World Cup Final. Here's the thing though; they had a whole bunch of other blokes on the field helping them out, and they managed to collectively screw things up in games and still make the final. Losing 36-0 is a bit of a disaster and would be the equivalent of Calzaghe dropping his guard and standing still for a couple of minutes in the middle of the ring. The thing is, in a team game you get so many opportunities to recover from a bad result, or even a bad mistake mid-game. Do that it boxing and you're punished with a clubbing left hook that sends you sprawling to the canvas.

 

Third place went to another boxer, Ricky Hatton. The timing of the event could have been perfect. Just hours before the announcement the undefeated veteran of 43 fights was to meet Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas in the most publicised fight involving a British fighter in years. If he won, Hatton would have secured the Welterweight title after stepping up from Light Welterweight, where he was dominant. As it happened Hatton was to stand toe to toe against Mayweather, a fighter widely regarded as the best pound for pound fighter on the planet. And so it proved. Hatton provided a gutsy performance against an American, in America with an American ref and judges and at a weight division above him, but it was not enough. Although the brash and frequently arrogant Mayweather showed some humility in labelling Hatton "a hell of a fighter" after the event it was not enough to stop the Mancunian from being knocked out in the tenth round.

 

And so we come to fourth place and James Toseland. I must say that I was happily surprised as I expected the motorbike-agnostic public to find more in common with a single Marathon-winning mum. The fact is that Toseland was competing in a truly international, multi-million pound sport; 26 races in 9 different countries across eight months. And he was the absolute best in his field. Let's not forget that this is no flash in the pan either; it's Toseland's second World title after becoming the youngest ever World Superbike Champion in 2004 at the age of 24. Somebody might cough at the back and mutter "MotoGP", and that's to be expected. MotoGP is the pinnacle of bike racing but Superbikes should not be regarded as its poor cousin without full thought. Answer me these questions; who won the final race of the MotoGP season in 2006, as a wildcard, on a bike he hadn't ridden in years? World Superbike rider, and 2007 fourth placed man, Troy Bayliss. Did MotoGP regular top ten finisher, Alex Barros, move to World Superbikes and clean up? No, he finished 2006 in sixth place. Did high-profile MotoGP rider, and regular runner up, Max Biaggi waltz off with the Superbike crown this season? Obviously not and he had to settle for third. Toseland beat all those in front of him and has taken the challenge of beating the absolute best by moving to MotoGP in 2008 as a double World Superbike Champion.

 

Toseland was never likely to win, despite his piano skills on the night of the show, but to finish fourth amongst such high profile company is certainly no disgrace (especially when he came agonisingly close to claiming third).

Voting Results:
1. Joe Calzaghe 177,748 (28.19%)
2. Lewis Hamilton 122,649 (19.45%)
3. Ricky Hatton 85,280 (13.53%)
4. James Toseland 84,570 (13.41%)
5. Jason Robinson 67,061 (10.64%)
6. Paula Radcliffe 34,895 (5.53%)
7. Jonny Wilkinson 30,302 (4.81%)
8. Andy Murray 13,242 (2.1%)
9. Justin Rose 10,227 (1.62%)
10. Christine Ohuruogu 4,481 (0.71%)

 

Total votes: 630,455