The week in women’s sport

Christine Ohuruogu and Hannah Cockcroft have made it onto the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award shortlist and the BT Action Woman of the Year nominees have been announced. Adele Norris rounds up the week in women’s sport

Track and field athlete, Ohuruogu, and wheelchair sprinter, Cockcroft, are among the contenders. Both have shone in the sporting world in the last few years.

Ohuruogu was a contender for the 2007 Sports Personality of the Year title along with Paula Radcliffe, and in 2008 with Nicole Cooke and Rebecca Adlington who came third.

She has one of the biggest global medal hauls in history and became the first British woman to win two world titles after triumphing at the World Championships in Athletics in Moscow in August this year.

Meanwhile Cockcroft, 21, has claimed a total of 21 world records over the T34 100m, 200m, 400m and 800m, four of them at the London 2012 Paralympic Games as well as two  gold medals for team GB.

This year she’s won six gold medals between the IPC Athletics World Championships and the Swiss National Championships.

Both the girls have been appointed MBE on the Queen’s New Year’s Honours lists.

The last woman to win Sports Personality of the Year was Zara Phillips in 2006.

An expert panel selected the ten contenders and the public can vote for their winner during the programme on December 15.

The full BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist is:

Ben Ainslie (sailing)
Ian Bell (cricket)
Hannah Cockroft (athletics)
Mo Farah (athletics)
Chris Froome (cycling)
Leigh Halfpenny (rugby)
Christine Ohuruogu (athletics)
Andy Murray (tennis)
A. P. McCoy (horse racing)
Justin Rose (golf)

Team GB Skeleton competitors step up the podium after rival’s disqualification.

Lizzy Yarnold was upgraded to World Cup skeleton gold and Shelley Rudman to fourth after American Noelle Pikis-Pace was disqualified in Calgary.

The disqualification saw Yarnold move from second place on the podium to first and fellow team-mate and 2013 world champion Shelley Rudman move to fourth.

Great Britain will send a team of five figure skaters to the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games including British ice dancers Penny Coomes and Nick Buckland won their third GB title in a row in Sheffield this week.

Team GB will be represented in the ice dance, pairs and ladies’ events but not in the men’s competition and more than likely the team, which is being introduced at Sochi 2014 for the first time.

It is two less than they sent to the games in Vancouver in 2010.

Amongst the team is Penny Coomes, 24 and Nicholas Buckland, 24. They secured Britain a place in the ice dance competition after their 13th position World Championship finish in March.

But this week they showed us what they’re made of ahead of the winter Olympics when they won their third GB title in a row at the British Championships in Sheffield.

Vancouver was their Olympic debut and they finished 20th but they’ve said they are setting their sites on a top-eight place at Sochi.

Buckland told BBC Sport: ‘Top eight in the world is realistic but we have a lot of things to sort out.’

Jenna McCorkell, 27, has secured a Sochi 2014 ladies place for Britain thanks to a strong competition also at the 2013 World Championships. She is the ten-time British champion was 29th at the Vancouver Games.

She won the ladies’ event in Sheffield this week.

Stacey Kemp, 25, and David King, 29, are also expected to be set as Team GB’s pairs skaters. They finished 15th at the 2013 World Championships but it but it wasn’t enough to secure them and Britain an Olympic pairs place.

Then, at the qualifying even they came back fighting. They were the best of the non-qualified nations at the Nebelhorn Trophy in September and finished 16th at Vancouver 2010.

Chemmy Alcott sets a dead line to recover her recent injury.

Alcott plans to compete in her fourth Olympics alpine skiing in Sochi.

She broke her leg during training for the World Championships earlier this year in Schladming but is planning to fast track her recovery for the World Cup circuit in Val D’Isere on December 19th.

She told Team GB: ‘I really wanted to race Val D’Isere which is on December 19th but it might be a little bit too early, so I might just be joining the World Cup tour in January.’

She said she knows how to fast track her performance and will be skiing by December, racing by January and peaking for February.

Alcott plans to race in the downhill, super giant slalom, giant slalom and super combined in what she vows will be her final appearance at the Games.

She ranked 11th in the downhill in 2006 and super combined in Vancouver.

‘I will definitely get better than 11th at Sochi but I’ll tell you my targets for Sochi when I’m on the plane there,’ she added talking to Team GB.

Bryony Shaw named as the British Sailing Team’s Athlete of the Year.

Olympic medallist Bryony Shaw claimed seven podium finishes out of nine this year, including her first ever RS:X World Championship medal when she won silver in Buzios in March.

The 30 year old says the award is down to the close knit support team.

‘We’ve got a good team there all pushing each other on and it’s really paying off with results on the water.’ (Team GB)

England Women’s team set to appoint new manager this month.

The Football Association hope to appoint a new manager in December.

Bristol boss Mark Sampson and England caretaker and current interim coach Brent Hills are among those being considered.

The position comes after former manager of 15 years, Hope Powell, was sacked in August following a poor performance from the team.

Sampson, 31, took Bristol to runners-up in the Women’s Super League (WSL) and FA Cup this season.

Hills, 60, assisted management under Powell, has taken England into the 2015 World Cup qualifying with four wins from four games.

Vote for your BT Action Woman of the Year. Ten nominees have been announced for the BT Action Woman of the Year 2013

In the running is:

Charley Hull, golfer.
Christine Ohuruogu, track and field athlete.
Ellie Simmonds, swimmer.
Heather Knight, cricket.
Katie Summerhayes, freestyle skier.
Laura Robson, tennis.
Natasha Dowie, Liverpool Ladies and England striker.
Non Stanford, triathlete.
Rachel Atherton, mountain biker.
Sophie Christiansen, Para dressage horse rider.

You can read more about each contender on the BT Sport website.

A special edition of The Clare Balding Show on BT Sport 1 on Saturday January 25 at 9pm will reveal the winner.

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