Beijing medallists dominate UK list

TRIPLE OLYMPIC gold medal-winning cyclist Chris Hoy said it was an “amazing honour” to be knighted yesterday – but insisted he…

TRIPLE OLYMPIC gold medal-winning cyclist Chris Hoy said it was an “amazing honour” to be knighted yesterday – but insisted he was just as pleased about his mother getting an MBE.

The flying Scotsman headed a long line of British sporting heroes receiving awards in the New Year Honours List, including racing driver Lewis Hamilton and teenage Paralympic swimmer Eleanor Simmonds. The cyclist’s mother, Carol, a retired nurse, was awarded an MBE for her work on sleep-related illnesses at the Royal Infirmary in Edinburgh.

Honours also went to comic fantasy novelist Terry Pratchett who announced last December he had been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer’s disease. He has since campaigned to raise awareness of the disease and improve funding.

CBEs go to Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and award-winning jazz musician Courtney Pine. An MBE is awarded to actor Liz Smith, famous as Nana in the sitcom The Royle Family, and an OBE goes to singer-songwriter John Martyn. Actor Michael Sheen, who played former prime minister Tony Blair in 2006’s award-winning film The Queen, is awarded an OBE.

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Hamilton, who is given an MBE after becoming the youngest Formula One champion in 2008, said the awards were a tribute to “an outstanding year for British sport”. Simmonds was just 13 when she won two Paralympic gold medals for swimming in Beijing, and now becomes the youngest person to be given an honour.

Reading Football Club chairman John Madejski is knighted for his charity work, while Dragons’ Den star Peter Jones receives a CBE for services to business, entrepreneurship and young people.

MBEs go to child-protection campaigner Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter Sarah was murdered in 2000, and to six heroes of the July 7th, 2005, terrorist attacks on London.

But this year’s list is dominated by the men and women whose sporting triumphs in Beijing placed the UK in fourth place in the Olympic medal table and second place in the Paralympics.

CBEs go to Bradley Wiggins who took home two golds and MBEs go to gold medal-winning cyclists Ed Clancy, Geraint Thomas, Jason Kenny, Jamie Staff, and Paul Manning. Olympic champion cyclists Nicole Cooke Victoria Pendleton and Rebecca Romero also get MBEs.

Athlete Christine Ohuruogu, who came back from a one-year ban for missing drug tests to become the women’s 400m champion, also gets an MBE. – (PA)