St Andrew’s Day marks just one week to go until the 2023 Scottish Sports Awards where some of Scotland’s top sporting names will have a chance to add to their accolades, named as finalists in the Athlete of the Year categories after a year of inspiring performances at the highest level.

Awards will be made for Male, Female, and Para Athlete of the Year, with the winners of each going forward to be in with a chance of lifting the Lonsdale Trophy and the overall title of Scottish Sportsperson of the Year.

In the Male category middle-distance runner Josh Kerr, whose stand out moment of the year was taking World Championships 1500m gold ahead of Norwegian favourite Jacob Ingebritsen, is shortlisted alongside Robert MacIntyre, the first Scottish golfer since 2014 to make the Ryder Cup team and unbeaten on his debut as the Europeans regained the trophy, and swimmer Duncan Scott, who took a full set of gold, silver and bronze at the World Championships in Japan.

Seonaid McIntosh, winner of the Lonsdale Trophy in 2019, joins Katie Archibald and Beth Potter on the shortlist for Female Athlete of the Year. Seonaid’s outstanding performances included European silver and becoming the first British athlete ever to win gold in an ISSF Air Rifle event, Beth won both the Olympic Test event and the World Triathlon Series title in a breakthrough season and Katie showed incredible tenacity to top the podium at World and European Championships on the back of an unbelievably difficult year.

Stephen Clegg was in world record breaking form, becoming the first athlete to break 28 seconds for the 50m Backstroke and winning gold and two silver at the World Para-Swimming Championships. Neil Fachie added three gold medals with pilot Matt Rotherham at the UCI Cycling World Championships to bring his career tally to an impressive 19, while Samantha Kinghorn was on top form at the World Para-Athletics Championships, winning four medals including T53 100m gold, setting a championship record and holding off the challenge of World Record holder Catherine Debrunner of Switzerland. The three make up a string shortlist for Para Athlete of the Year.

Scotland’s rising stars are recognised with the award of Young Athlete of the Year and this year’s shortlist showcases some already making their mark at senior level. 18-year-old Kirsty Muir earned two X Games bronze medals, beating Olympic medallist Mathilde Gremaud by a point in the women’s ski big air and adding a second bronze in the slopestyle event. Ben Sandilands took gold in the T20 1500m at the World Para Athletics Championships, beating senior opposition at the age of just 19, breaking his own European record and setting a new championship record, while swimmer Matthew Ward took bronze in the 200m Individual Medley at the European Juniors, before becoming Scotland’s record medallist at the Commonwealth Youth Games with seven medals: four gold and three silver.

The winners will be announced a week today in front of a capacity audience at the Glasgow Science Centre, alongside winners in eight other categories: Sporting Moment, Team, Coach, Club, School, Community Hero, Sustainability and Governing Body.

The glittering ceremony will also see two new additions to the Scottish Sports Hall of Fame, bringing the total number of Scottish sporting legends recognised in this way to over 100.

Find out more about all the finalists here.