Amy Hunt, the Newark-born sprinter who won four gold medals at this summer’s European Athletics Championships, is the bookmakers’ favourite to be named BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December. According to the odds comparison site Oddschecker, 42 per cent of all bets placed on the market over the past week have backed her, and bookmakers have cut her price from 11/10 to 4/5, which implies a 56 per cent chance of winning.
The market has moved sharply in her favour since August. She was available at 125/1 for the award a month before the championships, and midway through the competition, after her second gold, she was only joint favourite on the Betfair Sportsbook alongside Josh Kerr at 3/1.
The reason is her performance in Birmingham, at the first European Athletics Championships staged in the UK. Hunt became the first athlete to win four gold medals at a single edition of the championships, taking the 100m, the 200m, the women’s 4x100m relay and the mixed 4x100m relay. The nearest anyone had come before was the Dutch sprinter Fanny Blankers-Koen, who won three golds and a relay silver in 1950.
Her championships opened with the 100m, her first senior individual European title, won in 11.00 seconds. She followed it with the 200m, then the women’s sprint relay, where she ran with Dina Asher-Smith, Success Eduan and Imani-Lara Lansiquot and Britain won in 42.05 seconds. The final gold came on the closing night in an event new to the programme. Running with Jeremiah Azu, Asher-Smith and Zharnel Hughes, Hunt anchored the mixed relay team to victory in 39.97 seconds, pulling clear of Germany’s Gina Lückenkemper on the last leg. The time was a European record.
Birmingham capped a rapid rise. Hunt made her Olympic debut in Paris in 2024, winning silver in Britain’s 4x100m relay, and won 200m silver at last year’s World Championships. Born in Newark, the 24-year-old attended Kesteven and Grantham Girls’ School before going on to Cambridge University.
Not every bookmaker prices her identically, and accounts differ on who poses the main threat. Oddschecker’s analysis, as reported by the Newark Advertiser, suggested only the England captain Harry Kane was a serious challenger. Other recent prices put the Olympic and world 1500m medallist Josh Kerr second. Earlier this month bet365 had Hunt at 5/6 with Kerr next at 10/3, and one tipster argued that Kane’s SPOTY price had drifted as his chances in the Ballon d’Or market faded. A comparison of current odds shows Betfred offering evens on Hunt, Kerr at 3/1 and Kane at 5/1, with the skeleton racer Matt Weston, Jude Bellingham and the darts world champion Luke Littler further back.
Betting markets reflect where money is being placed, not the outcome. The award is decided in two stages: an expert panel draws up a shortlist, and the public then votes for the winner, with voting held during the live programme. The shortlist has not yet been announced, and contenders from autumn and winter sport still have time to make their case.
Oddschecker’s spokesman, Chris Rogers, said Hunt was well placed to finish a record-breaking year by winning the award.
If she does, Hunt would become the first athlete from the Newark area to take the BBC’s best-known sporting prize. The ceremony is scheduled to be broadcast live on BBC One in December.
