SPOTY 2015: Andy Murray wins Sports Personality of the Year award

Champion: Murray capped 2015 with the SPOTY award
Niall Carson/PA Wire
James Benge20 December 2015

Andy Murray has won the BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award to cap another memorable year for the tennis star.

Jessica Ennis-Hill finished in third place, while former Rugby League star, Kevin Sinfield, was the runner-up.

The 28-year-old ended the year as world number two behind Novak Djokovic after reaching at least the semi-finals of three Grand Slams and triumphing in Madrid, Queen’s Club and Montreal.

However undoubtedly his most successful moment in 2015 came in the team arena. He guided the British team to a first Davis Cup triumph in 79 years, winning all three of his matches against Belgian opposition to guide his team-mates to the trophy.

The Davis Cup side was also awarded the Team of the Year award at tonight's gala.

Glasgow-born Murray had long been the favourite to claim the award, leading other contenders Jessica Ennis-Hill, Tyson Fury and last year’s winner Lewis Hamilton since the shortlist was announced last month.

Murray also won the award in 2013 after triumphing at Wimbledon. He is one just four sportsmen to have won the award twice and the first since Damon Hill scooped his second in 1996.

"Thank you very much,” reacted Murray. “I didn't expect this.”

“A friend sent me a message the other day with an article saying 'Andy Murray is duller than a weekend in Worthing', which I thought was a bit harsh - on Worthing! Congratulations to everyone who was involved tonight."

"This has been a five-year journey - we were down in the bottom level of tennis and now we're number one. I would like to thank the whole team and the staff, who were incredible.

“I would like to thank my wife and my family and everyone who voted for me - I dedicate my life to this sport and I work extremely hard every day to make you proud."

Relive all the action from tonight's ceremony in Belfast...

Please wait a moment for the Live Blog to load.

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Sign up you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy notice .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in