BBC Sports Personality of the Year: vote David Weir

The importance, or otherwise, of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is up for debate, particularly in a year of almost unprecedented British sporting success.

But I might as well make my pick. I think Alastair Cook is unlucky to miss out on a place in the shortlist of 12, although his big achievement was after the shortlist was announced. Having said that, though, I would have to choose an Olympian or Paralympian, which rules out Rory McIlroy.

Mo Farah and Jess Ennis have rightly been lauded for their remarkable success in August, but I am more inclined to someone who hasn’t been in the media spotlight all year anyway. For that somewhat illogical reason, two of the favourites, Bradley Wiggins and Andy Murray, are also ruled out of getting my vote.

I would hate to belittle the incredible success of Sir Chris Hoy, Ellie Simmonds and Ben Ainslie, but they have already had so much success their golds this time almost feel like par for the course. Nicola Adams is a real personality, true, but I don’t reckon she deserves the nod above the rest of the competition.

So my top three would be:

• 3rd: Katherine Grainger – a stalwart of British rowing for years, and one who had got so close before but never quite managed Olympic gold. This year she finally changed that.
• 2nd: Sarah Storey – a five-time Paralympic swimming gold medallist, she added four more cycling golds to her two from Beijing in London. She cantered to victory in all of her races over the various distances, making all of her events look almost embarrassingly easy
• 1st: David Weir – not just because he was the only one of the 12 I saw win over the summer, for two of his four gold medals in four events, in distances ranging from 800m to the marathon. He won the marathon despite confessing to feeling exhausted early on and visibly fading during the first lap or two. And most of all, perhaps Weir was the single athlete who allowed the British public to get as engaged with the Paralympics as much as they did with the Olympics (people were talking about him on the Tube in the same way they were Farah and Ennis).

London 2012: Jade Jones and Aled Davies among the Welsh stars to be honoured

London 2012 gold medallists Jade Jones and Mark Colbourne will be among more than 40 Welsh stars parading on the steps of the Senedd this weekend.

The Welsh government is also encouraging Games Makers who took part in either the Olympic or Paralympic Games to wear their uniforms to the event on Friday evening.

Jones, from Flint, won Great Britain’s first ever Olympic gold in taekwondo, while Paralympic cyclist Colbourne, from Tredegar, picked up three medals, including gold in the C1 individual pursuit.

Other medallists who will be met by First Minister Carwyn Jones and Presiding Officer Rosemary Butler include Tom James (rowing, gold), Fred Evans (boxing, silver) and Aled Davies, who set off on a memorable lap of honour after winning gold in the F42 discus.

Josie Pearson, who broke the world record three times to win the F51/52/53 discus – Great Britain’s 10th and final Paralympic athletics gold – is also set to attend.

The evening is set to begin at 4.30pm with performers from Wales’s cultural Olympiad, including 19-year-old clarinet player Lloyd Coleman, Abergavenny Borough Brass Band and Ebbw Vale Male Choir, entertaining the crowds.

The public will be able to show their appreciation to the athletes from about 6pm.

You can follow the events on Twitter by following @WelshGovernment or watching the hashtag #2012cymruwales.

EDIT: Original mistakenly said it was being held on Saturday evening.

Weekend round-up

• It can’t have been asking too much of Sky Sports to show the penalty shoot-out from the women’s FA Cup final at Ashton Gate yesterday instead of a couple of minutes’ extra coverage of the League One play-off final, surely. The channel cut to Wembley with Birmingham and Chelsea preparing to take spotkicks, which effectively undermined the whole of the rest of the broadcast. Money talks, I guess, but the women’s game is not going to gain support if even a shootout in the final is not deemed worthy of any more than red button coverage.
• Good luck to Wales’s men in their friendly against Mexico at the MetLife Stadium in New York tonight. UPDATE: final score: Mexico 2-0 Wales
• Congratulations to Team GB’s Geraint Thomas and Tom James, who produced promising performances this weekend. Cyclist Thomas finished second in the individual time-trial as the Giro d’Italia, a result he said he was “happy” with in the build-up to the Olympic Games. Meanwhile James, one of the British men’s four rowing, helped his team smash the world record in the World Cup regatta at Lucerne. The event is one of Britain’s strongest events, with Team GB picking up Olympic golds in Sydney 2000, Athens 2004 and Beijing 2008.

Unfortunately didn’t have enough today but happy with how I’ve finished… Only 8 weeks until the main event, Can’t wait!!! #olympics

— Geraint Thomas (@GeraintThomas86) May 27, 2012

• Meanwhile, Dai Greene (48.96 seconds) was narrowly beaten into second place in the 400m hurdles in Morocco by the American Felix Sanchez (48.93), one of the toughest obstacles to Greene’s hopes of adding Olympic gold to the world, European and Commonwealth equivalents he has already won