LONDON: Olympic gold medalists Alistair Brownlee and Nick Skelton expressed their surprise British athletics legend Mo Farah was again snubbed by the public for the prestigious BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
For Murray — who garnered almost 250,000 votes over double the total of Brownlee — it was a historic third BBC award.
Farah — despite emulating Finnish icon Lasse Viren (1972/76) as the only athlete to do the Olympic distance double twice (5000/10000 metres) — finished way behind in terms of the popular vote in fourth.
Skelton — whose sport gets barely any mainstream coverage apart from the Olympics — received just over 109,000 votes with the much higher profile Farah getting only 54,476.
“I’m not sure why that is that he hasn’t made the top three,” said Brownlee.
Farah’s best finish is third in the 2011 poll. He has filled fourth spot on two other occasions — including 2012 when he lit up the track in London to secure his first Olympic double — and sixth in 2015.