Hodgkinson becomes the fourth woman in a row to win the award, after Mary Earps last year, Beth Mead in 2022 and Emma Raducanu in 2021. That’s the first time in the award’s history that this has happened!

Hodgkinson also becomes the first track athlete to win the award since Mo Farah in 2017.

The 22-year-old wins the biggest award of the night, capping off a remarkable year including that unforgettable Olympic gold in the 800m.

She says she is “a little bit shocked”.

Full quotes to come...

As expected, Littler comes in second in this award!

Joe Root is third in the voting, though he’s in New Zealand at the moment.

And now, the time has come for the headline award to be given out. One final montage as the nominees are listed again.

Mary Earps and Chris Hoy will be presenting the awards.

Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows win coach of the year. The duo coached Keely Hodgkinson to gold at Paris 2024, and their M11 Track Club produced two more Olympic medals for Team GB in Paris – Georgia Bell with a 1500m bronze and Lewis Davey with a bronze as part of the men’s 4x400m relay team.

Nominees include Emma Hayes, Wigan Warriors coach Matt Peat, Gareth Southgate and Hodgkinson’s coaching pair Trevor Painter and Jenny Meadows. The winner will be announced imminently by Jess Ennis and Kelly Holmes...

Now up for the Young Sports Personality of the Year, and no surprise who’s won here – it’s Luke Littler!

The 17-year-old became the youngest player to reach the World Championship final at the age of 16 years and 347 days, and also won the Premier League Darts, Grand Slam and World Series of Darts finals.

It was an interview in a hotel lobby in Yorkshire; he was slightly late and apologised profusely, then answered questions about the Tour de Francewith enthusiasm and detail. For some reason, I thought 10 minutes of flowing conversation made me his trusted confidant, so I looked him in the eyes and asked the question he didn’t like answering: how much do you want to break Eddy Merckx’s Tour stage record? He shrugged it off. But what would it mean to you? He went quiet. Wouldn’t it crown your legacy?

The look was somewhere in the Venn diagram of anger and disdain, and I half expected him to walk off. He stayed, but in that brief moment, I felt the gentlest prod of his famous spikiness. Cavendish was once asked what he’d learned from a difficult day on the bike. “That journalists sometimes ask some stupid f***ing questions,” he replied.

Cavendish is in Salford to speak to the BBC, and he accepts his award from his family and good friend Bradley Wiggins.

“That was an amazing reception,” he says. “I’m not very good at public speaking, that’s why I ride a bike for a living. 

“I’ve always been a sports fan, and sport has this incredible ability to inspire. Whether you want to compete, perform, keep fit, you can do what you want with sport. Specificlaooy cycling, that’s what I loved about it. 

“I don’t really watch cycling, I watch everything else. We look back at those years, with Covid, as soon as sport started everyone was happy.

“It’s good we celebrate it with SPOTY, we’re such a strong nation in the world of sport, and to celebrate that every year is very special. 

On the award, he says: “It’s such a massive honour, it’s so lovely. Thank you.”