Australian multiple world surfing champions Mick Fanning and Stephanie Gilmore are again in the running for the Laureus World Action Sports Award.
Fanning clinched his second global title in 2009 while fellow Queenslander Gilmore snared a third straight women’s world crown.
Australia picked up four nominations in the prestigious Laureus Awards for the second successive year, with wheelchair basketball star Justin Eveson and wheelchair racer Kurt Fearnley in line for the World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability Award.
Fanning, 27, stormed home late in the season to edge out close friend and countryman Joel Parkinson and claim his second title.
He also earned a Laureus nomination after winning the 2007 world crown.
Gilmore, 21, has won the women’s world title in each of her three full seasons on the Association of Surfing Professionals tour.
Each victory was followed by a Laureus nomination.
“This is a great tribute to Australian surfing,” said Australian Layne Beachley, herself a seven-time world surfing champ and 2004 Laureus Award winner.
“I am delighted that the world’s media have acknowledged this in nominating Stephanie and Mick for this award, which meant so much to me when I won it.”
Fearnley, the reigning Paralympic wheelchair marathon champion – was undefeated over the distance in 2009 with victories in Chicago, London, Paris, Seoul and Sydney.
He also crawled the 96km Kokoda Track in 10 days in November, raising money and awareness for men’s health issues in the process.
Eveson’s standout 2009 season included gold medals in the Australian and Turkish national wheelchair basketball leagues and the European Champions Cup.
“This is a great result for Australian sport with four nominations for the second year running,” said former Australian cricket captain Steve Waugh, a Laureus World Sports Academy member.
“They are all exceptional people and great champions, but I have to mention the guts and the courage that Kurt Fearnley showed on the Kokoda Trail in New Guinea.
“As if winning wheelchair marathons wasn’t tough enough, wanting to take part in such a challenge tells you everything you need to know about the man.”
The standout field for the World Sportsman of the Year Award was headlined by Jamaican sprint superstar Usain Bolt and four-time Laureus winner Roger Federer, who dominated the tennis world again in 2009.
The others to make the short list were Argentinian soccer superstar Lionel Messi, Ethiopian distance runner Kenenisa Bekele, Tour de France winner Alberto Contador of Spain and Italy’s seven-time MotoGP champion Valentino Rossi.
The contenders for the World Sportswoman of the Year are Serena Williams (tennis), Federica Pellegrini and Britta Steffen (swimming), Shelly-Ann Fraser and Sanya Richards (track and field) and American skier Lindsey Vonn.
The Los Angeles Lakers and New York Yankees, FC Barcelona, the German women’s soccer team, Brawn Formula One and the South African rugby team are in the running for Team of the Year.
The winners will be announced at the awards ceremony in Abu Dhabi on March 10.
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