Chris Hoy, the hugely-successful Olympic cyclist, has been named the 55th BBC Sports Personality of the Year tonight in front of 9,000 people at the Echo Arena in Liverpool.

Hoy became the first British Olympian since Henry Taylor, in 1908, to claim three golds at one games during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, winning the men's keirin, the men's team sprint and the men's individual sprint.

Lewis Hamilton, the Formula One driver, was second and Rebecca Adlington, the Olympic swimmer, third.

"I really wasn't expecting this, it has come as something of a shock," Hoy said. "This means so much, this is the big one, it's unbelievable, looking at the names on this trophy."

Stevenage-born Hamilton, 23, the McLaren Mercedes driver, became the youngest ever Formula One world champion, Britain’s ninth and the first since Damon Hill in 1996.

Mansfield-born Adlington, 19, who had been the bookmakers' favourite at the start of the evening, became the first British female swimmer since Anita Lonsborough in 1960 to win Olympic gold, taking the 400m freestyle and following it up five days later by smashing the world record whilst taking gold in the 800m freestyle.

Britain's Olympic cycling squad were named the team of the year, while Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt was named overseas personality. Sir Bobby Charlton, 71, a World Cup winner with England in 1966, eight years after surviving the Munich air disaster that so decimated the ultra-talented Manchester United squad, collected a lifetime achievement award.

The ten individual contenders, as determined by newspaper and magazine sports editors, were:

Rebecca Adlington, swimming
Ben Ainslie, sailing
Joe Calzaghe, boxing
Nicole Cooke, cycling
Lewis Hamilton, motor racing
Chris Hoy, cycling
Andy Murray, tennis
Christine Ohuruogu, athletics
Rebecca Romero, cycling
Bradley Wiggins, cycling

Previous winners

1954 Sir Chris Chataway 1955 Gordon Pirie 1956 Jim Laker 1957 Dai Rees 1958 Ian Black 1959 John Surtees

1960 David Broome 1961 Sir Stirling Moss 1962 Anita Lonsbrough 1963 Dorothy Hyman 1964 Mary Rand 1965 Tommy Simpson 1966 Bobby Moore 1967 Sir Henry Cooper 1968 David Hemery 1969 Ann Jones

1970 Sir Henry Cooper 1971 HRH Princess Anne 1972 Dame Mary Peters 1973 Sir Jackie Stewart 1974 Brendan Foster 1975 David Steele 1976 John Curry 1977 Virginia Wade 1978 Steve Ovett 1979 Lord Sebastian Coe

1980 Robin Cousins 1981 Sir Ian Botham 1982 Daley Thompson 1983 Steve Cram 1984 Torvill and Dean 1985 Barry McGuigan 1986 Nigel Mansell 1987 Fatima Whitbread 1988 Steve Davis 1989 Nick Faldo

1990 Paul Gascoigne 1991 Liz McColgan 1992 Nigel Mansell 1993 Linford Christie 1994 Damon Hill 1995 Jonathan Edwards 1996 Damon Hill 1997 Greg Rusedski 1998 Michael Owen 1999 Lennox Lewis

2000 Sir Steve Redgrave 2001 David Beckham 2002 Paula Radcliffe 2003 Jonny Wilkinson 2004 Dame Kelly Holmes 2005 Andrew Flintoff 2006 Zara Phillips 2007 Joe Calzaghe

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