News

BBC Sports Personality 2019: Our amazing ambassadors are in the running!

We’re ecstatic to hear and share that not one but TWO of our exceptional athletic talent and ambassadors are in the running for the 2019 BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.

The biggest of congratulations and best of luck to Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson; two incredible athletes who have certainly put our sport in the spotlight this year.

Both women dominating in Doha, with Dina becoming the first British woman to win a major global sprint title, claiming world 200m gold in a new national record time of 21.88 seconds. Also picking up silver medals in the 100m and 4x100m. Katarina triumphed in style to win heptathlon gold, with a British record of 6,981 points, beating silver medallist Nafissatou Thiam by 304 points and setting four personal bests in the process!

We’re proud of their successes and proud to have their support

Dina Asher-Smith

Dina Asher-Smith has supported our #GoCoach campaign since the start; a campaign to ensure that people of all ages and abilities can access athletics and running nationwide, by introducing 10,000 new coaches and leaders to our sport by the end of 2020. Dina’s speaks so highly of her coach, John Blackie, who she's trained with since she was nine years old. She knows how important it is to have a good coach and team behind her, and is encouraging others to get into coaching at local clubs to help grow our sport and support future stars.
Click here to find out more about our #GoCoach campaign

Katarina Johnson-Thompson

Katarina Johnson-Thompson is ambassador for our funetics programme; a fun and inclusive programme to help 4-11 year old children across the country learn, develop and practice running, jumping and throwing skills. A programme that she is passionate about, supporting children to get more active from an early age, and develop fundamental movement skills and confidence to help support them in all sports.
Click here to find out more about funetics

Dina and Katarina are in the running and up against fellow sporting stars, including cricketer Ben Stokes, Formula 1's Lewis Hamilton, footballer Raheem Sterling and rugby union's Alun Wyn Jones.

Have you seen the video of how this star-studded shortlist was revealed? Follow the link and take a look

Show your support for our stars

Voting will be open to the public during the Sports Personality programme on BBC One, on Sunday 15 December. The public will be able to vote by phone or online on the night, with full details announced during the show. We're encouraging all of our athletics family to get behind our sport and vote for our superstar supporters.

We’ll be showing our support on our social media channels on the night, links below to give us a follow:

Athletics News