McDowell set to crown year with RTÉ award

GRAEME McDOWELL is the short odds favourite to cap off a remarkable season with the RTÉ Sports Person of the Year award next week.

Eight high achievers have been short-listed with the same number battling for the sports team of the year.

The BBC’s equivalent will be played out amid pomp and ceremony on Sunday night in Manchester, with McDowell and jockey AP McCoy neck and neck for the coveted award. The same protagonists are likely to be in the frame next Wednesday in though there is a healthy sprinkling of female contenders in 2010, including swimmer Gráinne Murphy, boxing champion Katie Taylor and athlete Derval O’Rourke.