WORLD F1 champion Lewis Hamilton and golf’s world number Rory McIlroy have been nominated for the Laureus World Sportsman of the Year.
The pair face competition from Novak Djokovic and Cristiano Ronaldo while world MotoGP champion Mark Marquez is nominated.
Renaud Lavillenie is also in the running after breaking Sergey Bubka’s 21-year-old pole vault world record.
Hamilton picked up the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award in December, and said: “Knowing how prestigious the Laureus Award is I feel very, very grateful and proud to be amongst the great athletes that have been nominated.
“It’s great when you have these awards, which recognise the excellence and the commitment from lots of different individuals. I’m proud to be amongst them. It’s quite a line-up. Rory’s done an amazing job. Ronaldo, what a great player he is, Djokovic, I mean he’s won everything. I could only have ever dreamed really, at this period of time in my life, to be up amongst them.”
British long distance runner Jo Pavey and golfer Oliver Wilson are nominated for the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award.
Pavey won her first major gold medal at the age of 40 by picking up 10,000m golf at the European Championship while Wilson fought back from a period in the doldrums to win his first European tour event in 228 starts.