Nominees for sports personality awards announced

Despite of the doping scandal involving star swimmer Sun Yang, Chinese swimming team still dominates the nomination list for the 2014 CCTV Sports Personality of the Year Award.

The Chinese swimming team saw its athletes nominated in seven out of the 10 categories of the annual prestigious award with men's swimmer Ning Zetao and female Ye Shiwen included as candidates for the Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Year respectively, according to the nominees' list announced on Tuesday.

Ning, who won four gold medals at the Incheon Asian Games, was also nominated with three teammates in the Best Combination of the Year category for winning the men's 4x100m medley relay in Incheon.

Ye claimed three gold medals in 200m and 400m individual medley as well as the women's 4x100m freestyle relay at the Asian Games.

Another two young swimmers Chen Xinyi and Shen Duo were both nominated as candidates for Newcomer of the Year with multiple gold medal performances at the Asian Games and Nanjing Youth Olympic Games respectively.

Sun, who won three golds in Incheon, saw his image badly tarnished after the China Anti-Doping Agency announced in November that he tested positive for banned substance at a doping test in May and was then suspended from competition for three months.

The list of 50 nominees for 10 different categories, which also include the Best Team of the Year, Breakthrough of the Year and Best Coach of Year, was announced at the Beijing headquarters of Price Waterhouse Coopers, which audits the voting process.

PWC received 396 valid votes from a 408-member jury including journalists, scholars, sports officials and public representatives in November and selected five candidates for each category.

The eventual winners will be announced at an awards ceremony upon the decision made by 150 final judges at the MasterCard Center on Feb 1.

This year's awards place particular emphasis on breakthrough significance of nominees' athletic achieves in each of their field, the organizing committee said.

Other nominees for the high-profile Sportsman of the Year are Asian Game gold medalist long jumper Li Jinzhe, two-time Olympic champion shuttler Lin Dan, while retired tennis ace Li Na, who won her second Grand Slam singles trophy at the Australian Open in January, and Zhang Hong, who claimed China's first Olympic gold medal in long-track speed skating at Sochi, were nominated in the Sportswoman of the Year.

Candidates for the Breakthrough of the Year also included the men's 4x100m sprint team, who won gold at the Asian Games with new Asian record time, and the Chinese synchronized swimming team, who won the World Cup team event for the first time in October.