MotoGP: James Toseland fourth in prestigious BBC Sports Personality Award

James Toseland finished in an amazing fourth place in last night’s prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year.

The double World Superbike champion missed out on claiming a brilliant top three finish by just 710 votes, as he finished just behind boxer Ricky Hatton, who lost his big fight with Floyd Mayweather in Las Vegas on Saturday night.

James Toseland polled an impressive 84,570 votes to claim 13.41 per cent of the 630,455 votes cast during the live two-hour show from the NEC in Birmingham.

Ricky Hatton registered 85,280 votes as Toseland easily beat the likes of England rugby World Cup heroes Jonny Wilkinson and Jason Robinson, athletics star Paula Radcliffe and tennis player Andy Murray.

James Toseland, who will ride for the Tech 3 Yamaha squad in MotoGP next year, played a starring role in last night’s awards, riding a Ten Kate FireBlade into the arena.

He then played a piano set with the BBC Orchestra in front of 8,000 fans. The winner was boxing world champion Joe Calzaghe.

Sports Personality voting:
1. Joe Calzaghe 177,748 (28.19%)
2. Lewis Hamilton 122,649 (19.45%)
3. Ricky Hatton 85,280 (13.53%)
4. James Toseland 84,570 (13.41%)
5. Jason Robinson 67,061 (10.64%)
6. Paula Radcliffe 34,895 (5.53%)
7. Jonny Wilkinson 30,302 (4.81%)
8. Andy Murray 13,242 (2.1%)
9. Justin Rose 10,227 (1.62%)
10. Christine Ohuruogu 4,481 (0.71%)

See full reaction and photographs in Wednesday’s MCN, available from Wednesday, December 12, 2007.