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First time since 2006 that no woman has been shortlisted for award
The exclusion of British women from the BBC’s prestigious Sports Personality of the Year award shortlist has caused a storm, with sports commentators, fans and web users pouncing on the absence.
Sportsmen such as tennis player Andy Murray – not at his best this year -- were selected, but world champion swimmers Rebecca Adlington and Keri-Anne Payne left out.
"In a non-Olympic year, the list sums up the pervading attitude towards women’s sport in this country," fumed Laura Williamson of the Daily Mail.
Rival tabloid, The Sun had the headline "BBC’s female snub is Nuts", while the Daily Mirror wondered what was behind it all –was it rogue voting, the fact that less sport outside the mainstream is being shown on terrestrial TV?
The Guardian newspaper said the omission of any female contenders for the award was "hardly surprising, given the state of women’s sports coverage in the UK", while the Daily Telegraph came up with a list of women who it says should have been nominated.
On the social media app Storyful, user StoryHealy gathered reactions sparked on Twitter by the BBC announcement.
The list of Britain’s top sports personalities is drawn up every year by a team of editors of 30 publications in the UK’s local and national press.
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