BBC Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2015: Voting closed

Voting has now closed for the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2015.

The winner of the award will be announced on Monday, 7 December at the Wales Sport Awards event at the Sport Wales National Centre in Cardiff.

The awards ceremony, hosted by Jason Mohammad and Dot Davies, will be shown live on the BBC Wales Sport website and on BBC iPlayer (UK only) from 20:00 GMT. Further coverage will be on BBC Radio Wales and BBC Radio Cymru.

A review of the sporting year will be broadcast on BBC Cymru Wales television on Friday, 18 December at 21:00 GMT.

The eight nominees for the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year 2015, chosen by an expert panel and listed in alphabetical order, are:

Gareth Bale (football)

Bale was the driving force behind Wales' successful qualifying campaign for Euro 2016. He scored seven goals in the 10 games, including the winner against Belgium in Cardiff in June that gave such impetus going into the final four games. The Real Madrid forward, 26, played all but three minutes of the campaign as Wales finished second in their group behind the Belgians to ensure their place in the finals in France next summer.

His performances were recognised when named Wales Player of the Year for a record fifth time, while also being voted Players' Player of the Year and Fans' Player of the Year.

Dan Biggar (rugby union)

Biggar gave outstanding performances for Wales during the Rugby World Cup, the Six Nations and for regional side Ospreys. The 26-year-old scored 23 points in a man-of-the-match performance in the 28-25 win over England in the pool stage at the World Cup, including a long-range winning penalty. In total he scored 56 points in four matches as Wales were knocked out in the quarter-finals against South Africa.

In the Six Nations, he scored 26 points in five games as Wales missed out on the Championship on points difference with four wins from five. He also helped Ospreys to the semi-finals in the Pro12.

Aled Sion Davies (athletics)

Davies won two gold medals at the IPC World Championships in Doha in October. He won the F42 discus, throwing a world record 49.59 metres, and then added another gold in the F42 shot put with a Championship record effort of 14.95m. Davies, 24, had a hernia operation 10 weeks before the championships, which had put his participation in doubt.

His latest success takes him up to 10 medals at major championships since 2011.

Jade Jones (taekwondo)

Jones won gold for Great Britain at the inaugural European Games in Baku in June. Further gold medals followed at two legs of the World Taekwondo Grand Prix series, winning in Samsun and Manchester. The 22-year-old took silver in Moscow.

Her achievements have already secured Team GB a berth in her -57kg division for the 2016 Rio Olympics. As world number one, she is set to take that place and be given the chance to defend her title.

Lee Selby (boxing)

Selby became the 12th Welsh world boxing champion by beating Russia's Evgeny Gradovich to claim the IBF featherweight title in May. Selby then defended his title against Mexican Fernando Montiel in Phoenix, Arizona on his debut on American soil.

The 28-year-old has signed with one of boxing's most influential figures, American Al Haymon, advisor to five-weight world champion Floyd Mayweather.

Non Stanford (triathlon)

Stanford returned to action this year after a long injury lay-off to book her place in the GB team for the 2016 Rio Olympics by finishing second at the World Triathlon Grand Final in September. She was also second in a Rio test event in August.

After 20 months out with a foot injury, the 26-year-old competed again in April and secured her first podium finish of the year at an ITU World Triathlon Series event in Hamburg.

Geraint Thomas (cycling)

Thomas became the first British rider to win the formidable E3 Harelbeke race in Belgium in March. The 215km race - known as one of the Cobbled Classics - is among the hardest on the professional circuit. Thomas was then a key member of Team Sky that led Chris Froome to a second Tour de France victory.

The 29-year-old rode through the pain barrier, and at one point into a telegraph pole, in helping Froome and was up in fourth in the overall standings until the latter stages of the final week, eventually finishing 15th.

Ashley Williams (football)

Williams captained Wales to Euro 2016 qualification, marshalling one of the tightest defensive units in the qualifying stage. Wales had the fourth-best defensive record, conceding just four goals in 10 games. The Swansea City defender, 31, played every minute of every game and reached the 50-cap milestone during the campaign.

At club level, he captained Swansea to their highest Premier League finish of eighth last season and is rated as the best British centre-back by former Wales and Celtic striker John Hartson.

This award is not connected with the UK Sports Personality of the Year and will be for the Wales award only.

Other awards to be presented on the night include Coach of the Year, Team of the Year, Junior Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year (Carwyn James Award) plus Lifetime Achievement.

The Unsung Hero award has already been given to Jane Roberts and Nerys Ellis for their work at Llanrwst Swimming Club who will appear at the ceremony and go on to represent Wales at the UK BBC Sports Personality of the Year event in Belfast on Sunday, 20 December.

GENERAL VOTING RULES AS RELEASED IN NOVEMBER (PLEASE NOTE THIS VOTE IS NOW CLOSED)

Voting opened at 08:00 GMT on Monday, 30 November and closed at 18:00 GMT on Saturday, 5 December. Please do not vote before or after these times as your vote will not count and you may be charged.

Terms and conditions

The BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year will be named during a live awards show at the Sport Wales National Centre, Cardiff, on Monday, 7 December 2015.

The nominations processes, criteria and voting details (where applicable) for each award are outlined below.

MAIN AWARD - NOMINATION PROCESS & CRITERIA

This award goes to the sportsperson whose actions have most captured the public's imagination during 2015.

An expert panel (hereafter 'the Panel') will be convened in November 2015 in Cardiff to decide the shortlist of 5- 10 sportspeople for the BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year award.

The BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year production team will provide the Panel with an extensive list of the top sportspeople from 2015, including information on their achievements. The Panel will be free to consider other potential candidates.

The Panel will comprise 5 members this year:

Nigel Walker (chair)

Baroness Tanni Grey-Thompson

Non Evans

Christian Malcolm

Nathan Blake

The Panel will also:

• Undertake a back-up vote for the main award (in the unlikely event of voting difficulties on the night of the show).

The Panel will select a short list of sportspeople for the main award on the basis of the following criteria:

• Reflects Wales' sporting achievements on the national and/or international stage;

• Represents the breadth and depth of sport in Wales; and

• Takes into account 'impact' over and beyond the sport or sporting achievement in question.

Sports people are eligible to win the main BBC Cymru Wales Sports Personality of the Year award if they represent or are eligible to represent Wales at international sport.

Non-playing coaches or management are not eligible.

The Panel will endeavour to produce a shortlist based on reaching a consensus view. If a consensus view cannot be reached on all or some of the candidates, then the Panel will be asked to vote for the remaining candidates. In the event of a tied vote, the chairperson's decision (Nigel Walker) will be binding.

The shortlist of contenders was announced during BBC Wales Today on BBC One Wales and on Newyddion 9 on S4C later in November, and will also appear on the BBC Wales Sport and BBC Cymru Fyw websites.

MAIN AWARD - PUBLIC VOTE

The public will decide the winner from the shortlist of contenders from Monday 30 November - Saturday 5 December 2015 inclusive with a vote. This will be overseen by an independent adjudicator.

In the unlikely event of:

• A tie in the public vote amongst the two contenders obtaining the highest number of votes, the award will be shared amongst those two. There will be no award in second place category and the third place category award will go to the contender scoring highest after the two in the tie.

• A tie in the public vote amongst the three contenders obtaining the highest number of votes, the award will be shared amongst the three and there will be no awards in second and third place categories.

• A tie in the public vote amongst two contenders obtaining the second highest number of votes, the second place award will be shared amongst those two and there will be no award in third place category.

• A tie in the public vote amongst two contenders obtaining the third highest number of votes, the third place award will be shared amongst those two.

GENERAL VOTING TERMS AND CONDITIONS

1. Voting for the main award will be from a shortlist of contenders presented between 08:00 Monday, 30 November 2015 and 18:00 on Saturday, 5 December 2015. Voting will be available by phone or text. The number to call for each contender will be revealed when the voting period commences. There is no voting via email or by Red Button. The telephone and text numbers will be available via the BBC Wales website and social media sites.

2. Voting is by telephone and text message only. Please note that you cannot vote by email, Red Button or via this website. Votes will be capped at 5 votes per caller per voting method.

3. Telephone and text votes will open and close as specified above. Votes received outside the specified times or exceeding the maximum set out above will not be counted, but may still be charged. Voting times may change.

4. The BBC reserves the right to cancel or suspend voting at any time. In the event of any such cancellation or suspension, a technical failure or any other malfunction with the vote, the BBC reserves the right to arrange for the winner to be decided by a contingency arrangement from the votes cast by a pre-agreed contingency panel. This panel will be the same as one which devised the shortlist - see above for details.

5. The vote is open to all residents of the UK, including the Channel Islands and the Isle of Man. Please note that BBC employees, their close relatives or anyone directly connected in any way with the production of the programme or the provision of fixed line or mobile telephony services to the programme are not eligible to vote.

6. Each phone vote costs 10p plus your network's access charge. For up-to-date information it is always advisable to check with your service provider. Texts will be charged at your standard message rate. Check with your network provider for exact costs.

7. Voters must obtain permission from the bill payer before voting. Voters aged 12 or under should obtain parent/guardian consent before voting.

8. If you are viewing the programme through BBC iPlayer or any other time-shifting or on demand service you should check carefully whether the vote is open before doing so as it may have closed.

9. Make sure you dial carefully only the number or type carefully the short code/keyword combination of the person you wish to vote for.

10. You can vote up to a maximum of 5 times on your telephone or your mobile. The BBC reserves the right to disqualify votes if it has reasonable grounds to suspect that fraudulent voting has occurred or if it considers there has been any deliberate attempt to manipulate the result. The BBC can only guarantee that votes individually entered directly through the telephone numbers or short code/keywords promoted by the programme will count.

11. There are a number of contingencies which could occur. These may include the decision reverting to a back-up panel formed by people from the sports sector, in the event of problems with the phone or text vote or in the event of a tie. Any such use of contingencies will be declared.

12. For the purposes of verifying any claim for refunds (where offered) or investigating possible voting irregularities, the BBC may need to request the telephone service provider to disclose the telephone number that you are voting from.

Please note that this will still be required where you have originally opted not to disclose your telephone number (caller's line identification barring). If you do not agree to this, you should not vote.

Where such investigations are required, the BBC will only ever use your telephone number for the purposes of processing refunds or investigating possible voting irregularities.

The BBC will not publish this information or provide it to anyone without permission, except where required for enforcement of these terms. Please see the BBC's Privacy and Cookies Policy for more information at http://www.bbc.co.uk/privacy.

13. The BBC, its sub-contractors, subsidiaries and/or agencies cannot accept any responsibility whatsoever for: (i) any technical failure or malfunction or any other problem with any telephone network or line, system, server, provider or otherwise which may result in any vote being lost or not properly registered or recorded; and (ii) any nominee withdrawing from the event or refusing to accept the award for any reason.

14. The voting in this programme accords with the BBC's Code of Conduct for Competitions and Voting, details of which can be found on the BBC's Standards and Guidelines website.

15. These Terms and Conditions are governed by the laws of England and Wales.

LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARD

This award honours someone who has made a major impact on the world of sport in Wales during their lifetime. It is decided by the panel of judges as described above. The award will be presented live on the Wales Sport Awards programme on Monday 7 December 2015.