Angela who? Mudge lines up with greats

Five Britons have been nominated for recognition in the second World Sports Awards, which will be held at the Royal Albert Hall next January.

They are David Beckham, Lennox Lewis, Steven Redgrave, Angela Mudge and Jonathan Edwards.

Angela who? Among those famous names she could be overlooked but Angela is a world-beating mountain runner from Scotland.

Her claims to recognition will be judged by a panel including Muhammad Ali, Sir Bobby Charlton, ice hockey's Wayne Gretzky, Steffi Graf, Niki Lauda and Mark Spitz and chaired by International Olympic Committee president Juan Antonio Samaranch.

Ali will be in London for the awards and will celebrate his 59th birthday at a charity gala at the London Hilton supported by the World Sports Awards Foundation on 15 January, the night before the awards ceremony.

The awards are intended to be sport's equivalent of the Oscars, a glittering occasion to honour excellence in entertainment and endeavour. Categories include all the expected track, field, ball, water, winter and combat sports, supplemented by motor racing and extreme and adventure sports. This last category embraces all-action activities such as base jumping, speed snow biking and no-limit free diving.

The nominees were chosen by an electoral college of 71 sports correspondents from 30 countries, who nominated five names in each category. These were reduced to shortlists of five per category.

The panel will make its final decision on the day of the ceremony.

The awards were the brainchild of former Olympic ski-jumping silver medallist and World Cup winner Hubert Neuper in a meeting with Austrian business colleagues to discuss plans to celebrate the Millennium. The first awards, held in Vienna last year, honoured sporting heroes of the past century.

The event is being supported by the World Sports Awards Foundation.

Neuper said: "Sport is stronger than any ruling party, with an honesty more enduring than history itself. No ideology can bind its spirit, no philosophy is this free, no education can teach you more. It has no regard for race, colour, boundary, status or background. Nothing shapes the character more than the ethics and the glory of sport."

The World Sports Awards celebrate the success of the highest achievers within the professional sporting arena: individuals who have stirred, inspired and thrilled the world with feats of strength, speed, skill, stamina and endurance.

Actor Roger Moore will host the ceremony, which will be attended by Prince Albert of Monaco and astronaut Buzz Aldrin.