1 Jo Ankier, athlete
In August, at the world championships in Helsinki, the women’s 3000m steeplechase makes its major international debut and London’s Jo Ankier is determined to be there running for Britain. She is 22 and one of the best in the country at this relatively new event for women. She moved to the steeplechase in 2001, having failed to make the team for the European junior championships as a 1500m runner and seems to have found her perfect event, having already recorded the fastest time for a British woman in the 1500m steeplechase; she is third on the British all-time list over the championship distance. Two months before Helsinki, her appearance in a promotional video will be part of London’s bid to win the 2012 Olympics. Ankier has the potential to become a world-class athlete and will be determined to make her name through her deeds on the athletics track

2 Nicole Vaidisova, tennis player
There is something familiar about the story of Nicole Vaidisova: blonde, 6ft tall, raised in eastern Europe. She is German by birth and Czech by antecedence and residence, but schooled at Nick Bollettieri’s Floridian tennis academy, where previous graduates include Monica Seles and Maria Sharapova. Still not 16, the big server has already won two titles on the WTA Tour — only Jennifer Capriati can better so a precocious success. Her only Grand Slam outing ended in first-round disappointment at September’s US Open but she led former World No 1 and defending champion Justine Henin-Hardenne by two breaks of serve in the second set. Expect a marked improvement in 2005

3 Lewis Hamilton, racing driver
No black driver has ever started a Formula One Grand Prix, but Hamilton could well turn out to be the first. The teenager flashed around Silverstone in a one-off F1 test for the McLaren-Mercedes recently, and after spotting him in karts, the British team has now supported him through two seasons in British Formula Renault and this year through Formula Three’s Euro Series, an acknowledged step on the road to F1. Other young drivers would kill for backing like that, with some insinuating his skin is a help rather than a hindrance, but Hamilton has the talent to make the breakthrough. Britain is crying out for another successful F1 driver, with David Coulthard consigned to the new Red Bull team and Jenson Button still desperately seeking that elusive first grand prix victory

4 Sean O’Loughlin, rugby league player
After the bitter disappointment of the TriNations Series, in which Great Britain promised so much but were ultimately annihilated by Australia, we need a fresh young hero. The baby-faced Wigan loose forward looks even younger than his 22 years, but he showed when making his Great Britian debut against Australia and New Zealand this autumn that he possesses the power, skills and mature rugby brain of a seasoned international player. On top of that, he was one of very few individuals to emerge from the debacle of the first half of the final with any credit. O’Loughlin is the brother-in-law of Wigan and Great Britain teammate Andy Farrell, who was somewhat controversially voted this year’s world player of the year. O’Loughlin clearly has the potential to be even better. Some would say he already is

5 Alastair Cook, cricketer
‘The lad can play a bit,’ was Darren Gough’s judgment after he bowled at Cook for the first time in the Essex nets. Gough is a good judge, having bowled to most of the world’s best batsmen. Left-handed opener Cook, born on Christmas Day 20 years ago, has impressed many at Essex, notably Graham Gooch and Keith Fletcher, who know a thing or two about batting. He captained England Under-19s to the semi-finals of the World Cup at the start of the year, scoring two centuries and averaging 77 in the process. Cook, who has been described as a ‘left-handed Michael Vaughan’, has played only 17 first-class games, making his maiden century against Leicestershire last summer, but is already tipped to go all the way and will take the next step as part of this winter’s England Academy intake

6 Valeri Bojinov, footballer
Developed in Serie A from the age of 13, he made his debut in the Italian top flight at 15. By 17 he was the ‘Bulgarian Wayne Rooney’. Now 18, he should no longer be borrowing anybody else’s identity. Muscular and uninhibited, Bojinov was matching the admired Adriano for Italian league goals until early November, and that at Lecce, an unfashionable if enterprising club. Nobody expects him to dwell too long around the heel of Italy, with Barcelona, Chelsea and Arsenal most prominent in the queue. Scored on under-21 debut for Bulgaria with an overhead kick and has already won full international honours, scoring in a 1-1 draw against Ireland at Lansdowne Road in August

7 Andy Hodge, rower
Hodge, 25 has two shots to gain the prominence denied him in the last Olympic year. The first will come in March, when he strokes a formidable Oxford crew in the 151st Boat Race, the second as a key member of the British international squad looking for new heroes after the retirement of Matt Pinsent. Hodge, along with Alex Partridge, right, has the power and technique to be the next Pinsent

8 PJ Brennan, jockey
Paddy Brennan, 23, shot to prominence earlier this month riding a four-timer at Doncaster, three of them for his boss, Philip Hobbs. Under Hobbs’s shrewd guidance, the young Irishman has begun to emerge as one of the leaders of a talented new generation of jump jockeys. Going into the Christmas programme, Brennan had ridden 33 winners, already 14 more than last season

9 Steven O’Hara, golfer
A member of the victorious 2001 Walker Cup team, the 24-year-old Scot has made steady progress since. The 2000 Scottish Amateur champion, he won the St Andrews Links Trophy the following season and should win his first professional title in 2005. O’Hara, who would have been Europe’s rookie of the year in 2004 had it not been for Scott Drummond’s win at Wentworth, finished in a tie for third in the Diageo Championship at Gleneagles

10 Mathew Tait, rugby union player
Although still only 18, Tait is on a fast-track to the England rugby team. A member of the Senior National Academy, he trains with the full England team, and is an influential player at Newcastle, given a starting jersey when the Falcons were hit by injury. He is tall, robust and a potentially devastating attacking runner. Time will tell whether wing, centre or full-back is his best position, but his prodigious skills were on view when England won the Emirates Sevens in Dubai