SPORTVILLE BBC annual Young Sports Personality nominations open

All text by Ibrahim Kabiru Sule @ikabirsule ominations for this year’s BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year opened last week and will run up until Friday November 13 and then the winner would be announced at a ceremony on December 20.

The broadcast service, which runs a number of global sports recognition, including the BBC African Player of the Year, also recognises the best young sporting talent in the United Kingdom.

Although the recognition was yet to be extended to other parts of the world, nominations for the Young Sports Personality of the Year are made to the BBC and by sports governing bodies via the Youth Sport Trust, after which a panel decides the winner from the shortlisted nominees.

Young gymnast, Claudia Fragapane became the winner last year, who became the first British woman in 84 years to win four gold medals at one Commonwealth Games.

Winners of the BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year have traditionally come School Games enthusiasts, and majority of them later get motivated to join sporting life.

Nominees have to be 17 and under on the 1 January 2015 and the panel for this year’s BBC Young Sports Personality of the Year will be announced at a later date.

“It’s truly inspiring to see the number of young people rising up across a range of sports. It’s not easy to shortlist just ten athletes from such a wealth of talent and I wish all those nominated in the best of luck,” Youth Sport Trust Head of Sport Will Roberts said.

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