Jessica Ennis-Hill leads the betting for the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year, but eyebrows have been raised about the omission from the shortlist of another Sheffield star.
Winning heptathlon gold at World Championships in Beijing has put Ennis-Hill in the favourite's seat for the award, which will be given out on December 20.
An initial list of 10 was bumped up to a dozen when Tyson Fury and Andy Murray gatecrashed with their weekend heroics, but there was no place on the list for Joe Root.
The England cricketer - who went to the same school as Ennis-Hill - is the number-one Test batsman in the world and scored 460 runs to win man of the series as the Ashes were regained this summer.
The selection panel did not deem Root worthy of a nomination, though, which has caused concern amongst cricket fans.
A man-of-the-series award was enough for Andrew Flintoff to win the BBC prize in 2005, while England cricketers have been nominated following Ashes wins in 2009, 2011 and 2013.
"Joe Root had such a good year, being named man of the series in an Ashes victory and breaking the calendar-year record for most runs scored for England," Barmy Army spokesperson Matt Nichols told Press Association Sport.
"It is a bit concerning, especially in an Ashes year, for him not to be up there.
"It's difficult to say why he was left out, and also Stuart Broad, who produced one of the best pieces of bowling at Trent Bridge when Australia were bowled out for 60.
"It's a bit disappointing (Root) didn't get recognition but he's a once-in-a-generation player and he will be up there eventually."
Paralympic, World and European champion Hannah Cockroft also questioned the lack of nominees from disability sports.
Pushing the case of wheelchair tennis player Jordanne Whiley and sprinter Richard Whithead, she said on Twitter: "12 nominees & not one of them in disability sport? Didnt expected my name on #SPOTY shortlist this year but others have been overlooked.
".@jordannejoyce92 won more titles as most successful British tennis player EVER, @Marathonchamp destroyed his own WR, not to mention others!"
The nominees for this year's award were decided by three members from BBC Sport, TV pundit Jermaine Jenas, broadcaster Hazel Irvine, former award nominees Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson, Maggie Alphonsi and Dame Mary Peters, the chair of the youth sport trust Baroness Sue Campbell and a representative from national newspapers the Guardian, the Sun and the Times.
There are two other contenders who enjoyed track and field success at the World Championships. One is Mo Farah, who secured a unique 'treble double' in distance running having won golds in both 5,000 metres and 10,000m at two World Championships and the Olympics.
The other is Greg Rutherford, the long-jump world champion who became only the fifth British athlete to hold Olympic, Commonwealth, European and world titles at the same time.
Last year's winner of the BBC award, Lewis Hamilton, is also shortlisted again after successfully defending his Formula One world champion title.
Tour de France winner Chris Froome is nominated, as is fellow cyclist Lizzie Armitstead, who won the UCI World Road Championship.
Lucy Bronze, the defender who helped England Women's football team to third place in the World Cup and was shortlisted for the player of the tournament, is also nominated. So too is Kevin Sinfield, who retired from rugby league after an extraordinary career - including winning the Challenge Cup, League Leaders' Shield and the Super League title in his final season - before switching codes to union.
The final contenders are Adam Peaty, who became the first British swimmer to win three gold medals at a single World Championships, and Max Whitlock, who ended Britain's 112-year wait for a men's gold medallist at the World Gymnastics Championships.
The panel met in mid-November and agreed that significant sporting events taking place after that meeting but before the shortlist was announced should be taken into consideration.
The winner will be decided by a public vote and announced at a live event from Belfast on Sunday, December 20.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereComments are closed on this article