Rory McIlroy and Darren Clarke nominated for the prestigious BBC Sports Personality awards
The ceremony for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award was held on Thursday, December 22, at MediacityUK, Salford, where the renowned cyclist Mark Cavendish was bestowed with the prestigious award followed by the Open winner Darren Clarke for his
phenomenal success amidst the rampaging young guns.
Awards are pouring in for the blistering European golfers as the US Open champion Rory McIlroy was recently named for the BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year Award and the RTE Sports Star of the Year Award. Coupled with that, three players
on the European Tour were shortlisted for the coveted BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award including Darren Clarke, Luke Donald and McIlroy out of the total ten successful sportsmen for the year.
McIlroy, earlier, spoke about his nomination for the BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year Award and said that he was overwhelmed with the prestigious honour.
“I am thrilled to be named as the BBC Northern Ireland Sports Personality of the Year,” said McIlroy. “Looking back on 2011, it's been an amazing 12 months of my life. It's been a year I will always remember, not least because I won my first major. I would
also like to thank all the great support from everyone in Northern Ireland. I’m looking forward to getting to Belfast for Christmas - and then in 2012, hopefully bringing more silverware back home.”
Clarke’s nomination for the second place at the BBC Sports Personality of the Year was rightly deserved as the veteran was able to pull in his first major title after a continuous struggle of 20 long years. World number one Luke Donald was also present in
the ceremony as host Gary Lineker talked to all the ten contestants for the award. Donald has landed several prestigious awards at the closing of the season including the PGA Tour Player of the Year, European Tour Golfer of the Year, FedExCup Money Leader,
Race to Dubai Money Leader, and several other accolades for his blistering performance in 2011.
Despite of his spectacular closing of the year, Donald has not won a single major title so far in his career and will be hoping to break the taboo starting from the Masters next year.
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