Enlarge imageBy Mitch Phillips
LONDON (Reuters) - Triple Olympic track cycling gold medallist Chris Hoy was named the BBC's Sports Personality of the Year on Sunday to cap a remarkable night and year for the sport.
The Scot finished ahead of Formula One world champion Lewis Hamilton and double Olympic swimming gold medallist Rebecca Adlington in a vote by the British public.
Hoy's award completed a treble for cycling after the British Olympic team were named Team of the Year and their coach Dave Brailsford won the Coach of the Year honour.
"This is such a shock and after the year I've had and the team I've had this means so much," Hoy said at the awards show in Liverpool.
"I'm just overwhelmed. The team has enjoyed one its best years, in my lifetime anyway, and there are so many people to thank."
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The cyclists won 14 medals at the Beijing Games in August, including eight golds, having won nine golds at the track World Championships in Manchester in March.
Hoy became the first Briton to win three gold medals in the same Olympics for 100 years when he triumphed in the sprint, team sprint and keirin.
The Scot's achievement was all the more impressive for his having to change his preparation after the one kilometre time trial, in which he won gold in Athens in 2004, was taken out of the Beijing programme.
"It's been a tremendous year with success at both the World Championships and the Olympics," said Hoy, who also won two gold medals at the worlds.
Hamilton, the bookmakers' favourite, recovered from missing out on the title by one point in his debut season to triumph this year, also by a single point.
At 23, he was the youngest-ever champion and also the first black driver to win it.
Adlington, at 19, won the 400 metres and 800 metres freestyle gold medals, breaking the 19 year-old world record of American Janet Evans in the 800 final.
She was Britain's first Olympic swimming champion since 1988, the first woman since 1969 and the first British swimmer to win two Olympic golds in a century.
Jamaican Usain Bolt, who won the Olympic 100 metres, 200 metres and 4x100m relay golds, all in world record time, was named Overseas Personality of the Year.
(Editing by Rex Gowar)
