Deeside athlete Sabrina Fortune and Flint’s Jade Jones nominated for BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year

Deeside AAC athlete Sabrina Fortune has been nominated for the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2019 award.

Sabrina joins Flint’s Jade Jones and six other contenders for the award this year.

Sabrina won her first world title in dramatic style at the World Para Athletics Championships in Dubai earlier this month.

The 22 year old from Mold smashed the championship record with a personal best throw of 13.91m her last in what had been a back and forth battle with Ukraine’s Anastasiia Mysnyk in the women’s shot put F20 final.

European champion Fortune has enjoyed a fine season, matching her 13.70m personal best, and after opening with efforts of 12.32m and 12.79m, she found her stride and threw a Championship record of 13.26m to take the lead in round three.

Flint golden girl Jade Jones secured the first world title of her career with gold at the World Taekwondo Championships in May in Manchester, beating arch-rival Lee Ah-reum 14-7. As well as her World Championships success, Jones also took gold at the Sofia Open and a silver at the Belgian Open.

This year’s list contains a record number of sportswomen, with seven amongst the eight athletes shortlisted and three para-athletes.

Voting for the award opens on Monday 2^nd December, and the contenders are:

• The winner of her fourth consecutive world title in the F46 javelin, Hollie Arnold
• Cyclist Elinor Barker who won two golds and two silvers on the track at world level competitions this year
• Skier Menna Fitzpatrick who won two golds, two silvers and a bronze on the Para Alpine World Championships
• Sabrina Fortune who won gold for Team GB in the F20 shot put at the World Para-Athletics Championships 
• Alun Wyn Jones who won his third Grand Slam and captained Wales to a World Cup semi-final. Alun Wyn has also been shortlisted for the BBC network Sports Personality of the Year.
• Taekwondo’s Jade Jones who won the first World Championship gold medal of her career
• Sailor Hannah Mills who took gold in the 470 Class World Championship in Japan
• Lauren Price who became the first Welsh boxer to win gold at the World Championships.

Voting for the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year opens on Monday 2^nd December and closes on Sunday 8^th December. Full details of how to vote will be published on bbc.co.uk/sportwales.  

The shortlist was chosen by an expert panel made up of former Wales International rugby union player and National Director of the English Institute of Sport Nigel Walker, former Paralympian Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson; Brian Davies Director of Sport Wales; former Wales striker Nathan Blake and sports writer Carolyn Hitt.

Nathan Blake, who was part of the judging panel, said:

“This was another great year of Welsh sport and the judges had their work cut out for them. We had to make some difficult decisions, but this shortlist reflects the breadth of Welsh sporting success throughout the year – from track and field, to sailing, boxing, rugby and more.

These athletes are all winners who have made a significant contribution to Welsh sport and on behalf of all involved in the judging process I’d like to thank them for making our decisions so difficult this year, keep up the good work.”

The winner will be decided by public vote, and announced at a celebratory evening at the Celtic Manor Hotel on the 10^th of December, which will celebrate both the best of Welsh elite and grassroots sport. Fans will be able to follow the whole evening on bbc.co.uk/sportwales from 7:30pm on the night.

The Wales Sport Awards is a partnership between BBC Wales and Sport Wales, celebrating the best sporting achievement at elite and community level. Award categories include the Getting Wales Active award, the award for Great Sports Story, the Inspiring Person award, the Lifetime Achievement award, as well as the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year award.