Hunt and Kerr sprint onto BBC SPOTY shortlist together
Amy Hunt and Josh Kerr have both made the BBC Sports Personality of the Year shortlist. The six-name list for the annual public vote rarely includes two track athletes. This one does, according to details reported on 14 September The Guardian.
Hunt forced her way in with a European Championships no one had managed before. She became the first person in the event's 96-year history to win four gold medals. Four races. Four golds. No man or woman had done it before her.
Kerr answered with titles and a record that had gathered dust. In July in London he broke a world mile record that had stood for 27 years. The mile, four laps of the track plus a little extra, remains one of the sport's most storied distances, and that mark had survived generations of challengers.
His year has been built race by race. In 2026 he has won the world indoor title, the Commonwealth Games title and the Ultimate Championship in Budapest. His championship pedigree stretches back to 2023, when he won the world 1500m title against Norway's Jakob Ingebrigtsen.
That form carried into the latest championship finals. BBC Sport's live coverage on 13 September recorded Kerr winning the 1500m final for Great Britain's first title at the meeting BBC Sport. At the same meeting, Hunt placed fourth in the women's 200m final after her golden summer on the continent.
What makes this stand out is selection history. Only twice since 2017 has the BBC put two athletes from the same sport on its six-person shortlist. The last athletics pair was Dina Asher-Smith and Katarina Johnson-Thompson in 2019.
Kerr knows nothing is guaranteed. After winning the Ultimate Championship in Budapest he said a shortlist place is "not a given, that's the reality". He learned that in 2023, when he was omitted from the six while tennis player Alfie Hewett and golfer Rory McIlroy were selected ahead of him.
For fans, this means a winter vote with a clear athletics flavour. Bookmakers have Hunt as even-money favourite, with Kerr second and England captain Harry Kane third. The winner is decided by public vote later in the year, after the track spikes have been put away and the roadside crowds have gone home.
