Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo will once again bid to become the first team player to win the individual World Sportsman of the Year Award but he will face still competition from a glittering collection of world’s greatest sports stars, who have been nominated for the 2015 laureus World Sports Awards, here on Wednesday. Ronaldo will be up against some ferocious opposition from stars such as lewis Hamilton, Rory McIlroy, Novak Djokovic — to name a few — when the winner is named in a glittering ceremony here on April 15.
Ronaldo was beaten by Sebastian Vettel last year but this time he faces UK pair lewis Hamilton and Rory McIlroy, tennis world No.1 Novak Djokovic, Spain’s World MotoGP champion Marc Marquez and Renaud lavillenie, the French pole vaulter who broke Sergey Bubka’s 21-year-old world record. The Nominations— six in each category — have set up some eye-catching confrontations. Although not picked for an individual Award, record four-time laureus winner Roger Federer receives two Nominations for the part he played, along with Stan Wawrinka, in the first ever success by the Swiss Davis Cup Team, who are shortlisted for both Team of the Year and Breakthrough of the Year.
Serena Williams, nominated for laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, will be hoping for her record-equalling fourth laureus Award, but she is challenged by the emotional appeal of China’s li Na, who won her second Grand Slam in 2014, but had to retire later in the year. Among the other Nominees in this category are Winter Olympic gold medallists Tina Maze and Marit Bjørgen. Australia’s Stephanie Gilmore, six-time world surfing champion, will be bidding to win her second laureus Action Player of the year.