Ballyclare motorcycle star Jonathan Rea has missed out on being nominated for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award.
This year’s nominees are – Harry Kane, Geraint Thomas, Lewis Hamilton, Dina Asher-Smith, James Anderson and Lizzy Yarnold.
World Superbike champion Jonathan was runner-up to Mo Farah for the 2017 award. However, he has not been nominated for this year’s award.
The awards ceremony is currently underway.
Rea is the first man to have won the championship in four successive seasons.
Recently he received an honorary degree of Doctor of Letters (DLitt) from the University of Ulster.
“I feel like a phoney because I never went to university,” he said following the ceremony at the Waterfront Hall in Belfast.
The lack of SPOTY nomination for Rea has led to criticism on social media.
Got to admit the BBC seems to have fixed the #SPOTY following Jonathan Rea doing so well last year
— Eddie Watterson (@EddieLisburn81) December 16, 2018
Last years runner up Jonathan Rea should win, he became the best superbike rider in history this year. If it's not Jonathan then definitely Tyson Fury should win, he deserves it. Would be nice to see Ronnie o'Sullivan up there too.
— Ufohunter (@_Ufohunter_) December 16, 2018
i wanna be excited for #SPOTY but i just keep remembering jonathan rea being Completely Robbed last year so u kno, hard to get into the mood of it all
— the second-best sibling (@joanmirbe) December 16, 2018
@BBCSPOTY @BBC_Bikes @BBCSPORTNI @BBCSport @RW__Arena
Looking forward to seeing the whole of the UK represented this evening in the short list and seeing this top man in the race – 4 in a row World Champion @jonathanrea @WorldSBK #JR65 #Spoty #bbcspoty #Spoty18 pic.twitter.com/0yry7PG42K— Stephen Scott (@bigalexracing) December 16, 2018
Absolutely scandalous that NI’s four-time world superbike champion @jonathanrea isn’t in that shortlist for #SPOTY2018 Harry Kane has won absolutely nothing!
— Stephen Blevins (@stephenblevins9) December 16, 2018