Wigan Warriors are the 2024 Team of the Year! They clinched the quadruple, winning the World Club Challenge, Challenge Cup, League Leaders’ Shield and Grand Final.
They swept the board domestically and won every single trophy on offer.
“The club’s in good shape, we’re very aligned, we’re very connected, we’ve got great ambition and we want success,” says coach Matt Peet.
Well we’re about to find out who the Team of the Year award is going to… unfortunately it won’t be my village cricket side who powered to promotion in Division 7.
Jean Paton has won the Unsung Hero award, which celebrates the best volunteers in sport.
Paton, 90, has given her time to volunteer at the Salterns Sailing Club in Lymington, Hampshire, for 40 years.
“She inspires us all,” “She’s formidable,” “She’s the kind of 90-year-old that everyone should inspire to be,” said those at her club.
And the award goes to…
Well it’s between three people and those include Skateboarder Sky Brown, Para-swimmer William Ellard and darts player Luke Littler. We’ll know shortly…
Age: 16 Sport: Skateboarding
Team GB’s Sky Brown won Olympic bronze in the women’s skateboarding park final. She did so having overcome a shoulder injury sustained the day before travelling to Paris!
Age: 18 Sport: Para-swimming
William Ellard clinched winning three medals, including two golds during his Paralympic debut in Paris.
He was crowned Paralympic champion in the S14 200m freestyle – setting a new world record – and mixed 4x100m freestyle relay, and took silver in the 100m butterfly.
Age: 17 Sport: Darts
Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler is second-favourite for the top prize, and has a great chance of winning in this category.
The darts sensation catapulted himself into stardom at the start of 2024, when reaching the World Darts Championship final – becoming the youngest player to reach the tournament’s final at the age of 16 years and 347 days.
Dame Sarah Storey has arrived, in slightly slower fashion than normal having broken her ankle while ice skating a few weeks ago. “Sorry, I’m not used to being this slow,” she joked.
Her protective boot is adorned with tea lights from what I can see. Snazzy.
“I was training to do some ice skating and I tripped a bit and broke my ankle,” she added. “I did it two weeks ago. I’m doing rehab like a crazy woman to try and get back quickly. I’ve been doing sport for a really long time but I absolutely love it.”
Another Paralympics, another slew of gold medals to add to her collection.
Britain’s most successful Paralympian claimed two gold medals in the C4-C5 road race and C5 road time trial at the Paris Games.
All told, Dame Sarah Storey now boasts 30 Paralympic career medals, 19 of which are golds, and the most recent came 32 years after her first in Para-swimming in 1992. In fact, she had already picked up her fifth gold medal in swimming before four of her rivals were born!
If Storey succeeds at SPOTY, she will be the oldest winner of the award.
