Today we reveal the three nominees in the running for Sports Personality of the Year in the Examiner Pride of Huddersfield Awards.

The winner will be revealed at the awards next Thursday which will be at the John Smith’s Stadium and hosted by ITN newsreader Nina Hossain.

Pride of Huddersfield Awards

Here are the nominees for the Sports Personality Award:

Hannah Boden

Sports Personality nominee Hannah Boden of Taylor Hill.
Sports Personality nominee Hannah Boden of Taylor Hill.

She’s only 15 yet she’s already a European champion in a tough multi-skilled sport.

And the sport that Hannah Boden excels in has been little known ... until now.

For the Honley High pupil is the European Racketlon champion and also British Women’s Champion for her age group – and is now looking forward to the World Championships this year.

Racketlon is a combination sport where competitors play a sequence of table tennis, badminton, squash and tennis ... and Hannah’s main focus was on the Under 16 individual event.

Hannah took the Under 16 European crown in Prague, Czech Republic, and will be among the favourites to add a world gold.

She also brought back a silver from Prague with the Great Britain Under 21 team, who narrowly lost out to Austria in the final.

Hannah is also the youngest ever Yorkshire open age badminton champion and represents England in the sport.

She has also played tennis for Yorkshire for the under 11s and has played at both Thongsbridge and Huddersfield tennis clubs.

Sports personality nominee Hannah Boden of Taylor Hill.
Sports personality nominee Hannah Boden of Taylor Hill.

Her brother, Piers, got her into rackleton and he is the current under 16 doubles world champion. He’s now 17 and intends to spend a year touring Europe playing rackleton as the sport is big in Scandinavia, Denmark, Austria and Holland. About 2,000 people play the sport in the UK.

He started playing when he was 13 and Hannah was his training partner and so took up rackleton too.

Their parents and Malcolm and Lynn Boden both used to do athletics and the family live in Taylor Hill.

Malcolm said: “It takes a lot of time and effort but we’re really proud of them both.”

Hannah said: “I just love playing all sport and really like the competition side going to tournaments.”

She trains two hours a day, mainly with Piers, both at Huddersfield Leisure Centre and also in Leeds.

Hannah will be competing in the World Racketlon Doubles Championships in Denmark in July, followed by the World Singles Championships in Germany in November where she may well be the favourite for the Under 16 title in her final year at that age group.

Mary Durrans

Sports Personality award nominee Mary Durrans
Sports Personality award nominee Mary Durrans

At the age of 83 racing about on a tennis court would probably be the last thing on a person’s mind.

But it’s the first for phenomenal Mary Durrans.

For she’s been off overseas representing Great Britain at tennis after winning British titles.

Mary, of Lindley, is ranked 13th in the world for woman players over 80.

Last year she played for Team GB at the International Tennis Federation’s (ITF) Super-Seniors World Team Championships in Croatia where the team came second to the USA and is hoping to get selected again this year.

But that will depend on how well she does at the British Senior (Over 80s) Tennis Championship in Bournemouth.

Last year Mary won the ITF’s British Senior (Over 80s) Clay Court Doubles title at the tournament with her doubles partner, 80-year-old Pam McGrath from Preston – and they will be defending it this time.

Sports Personality award nominee Mary Durrans
Sports Personality award nominee Mary Durrans

This followed her triumph in the ITF’s singles champion at the British Open Clay Court Championships in Bournemouth in 2014.

Mary said: “You don’t feel any more pressure than you would in any other game that you play. I like competitiveness!”

She also plays in the over 70s team for Yorkshire who were runners-up in Division One last year.

She has played at Wimbledon in The British Seniors’ Closed Grass Court Championships.

Mary, who plays at Huddersfield Lawn Tennis and Squash Club where she is president, says there is no secret to her remaining so fit.

“I do nothing different than anyone else,” she said. “I have never smoked but I do enjoy a drink and I try to take a lot of exercise.”

So what does she do to relax when she’s not playing tennis?

Well, she goes off playing golf!

A member at Huddersfield Golf Club in Fixby, Mary now plays off 17 but was once a single-figure player and prominent in the Yorkshire Veterans organisation.

Mary’s husband, Richard, passed away 11 years ago and she has three sons, Ian, Richard and David and nine grandchildren.

Tyrone Nurse

Sports Personality nominee Tyrone Nurse with his three month old daughter Penelope
Sports Personality nominee Tyrone Nurse with his three month old daughter Penelope

It’s a gruelling sport and Huddersfield boxer Tyrone Nurse has shown a phenomenal fighting spirit to get to the top.

He won a unanimous points decision last November to rival defeat Chris Jenkins from Wales and lift the British super lightweight title.

And during the tough bout Tyrone was knocked down in the fifth round – and said afterwards that made him even more determined to win.

He said later: “It was a bit of a blessing in disguise that I got knocked down. The shots that get you are the shots you don’t see. I switched off and threw a lazy jab and he capitalised. I didn’t realise how good a shot it was until I’ve looked back at it.”

This came just four months after the two battled one another to a draw at the Manchester Arena.

Tyrone’s path to glory came when he was a small boy. His dad, Chris Aston, had trained boxing champions and Tyrone often tried his hand with the pads when he was as young as five or six.

After he was educated at Netherton Infants, South Crosland Junior School and then Newsome High, Tyrone notched up amateur success but his aim was always to turn professional and then his career really took off.

But he said it’s been gruelling work that involves running, gym work and, in Tyrone’s case, yoga.

Light Welterweight Champion Tyrone Nurse

“I could so easily have been out drinking, partying and smoking but focusing on boxing has kept my head screwed on,” he said. “You need to fully concentrate on what you need to do. I’ve seen my dad train champions and you can’t win just on talent. You have to be absolutely dedicated. The only thing I’ve changed recently is starting yoga and since then I seem to have had less niggling injuries.”

His first child, daughter Penelope, was born three months ago and Tyrone says it’s already changed his outlook on life.

“It’s about Penelope now,” he said. “It’s about building something for her.”

Tyrone, 26, of Crosland Moor, turned professional in March 2008 and won his first 20 fights.

His first major title came in February 2013 when he stopped Joe Elfidh in the second round to take the vacant British Boxing Board of Control Central Area super lightweight title and in April 2014 lifted the English title. In October that year he narrowly lost on points in a brave bid to lift the Commonwealth super lightweight title.

Watch: Tyrone Nurse speaks to Examiner after winning British super-lightweight title

Video Loading

Now he must defend his British title and that takes place next Saturday, May 28 when he will face Glasgow’s Willie Limond.

Chris Aston is confident that Tyrone will defend his title in a tough bout.

“It’s going to be a tough fight against a very experienced pro who nearly derailed Amir Khan’s career,” he said. “Limond has won 39 of his 43 career fights. Those four fighters who beat him were, or went on to be champions.

“But we are confident. We beat the best that Wales had to offer in Chris Jenkins and now we will beat the best the Scottish have.”

Award Sponsor: Hot Tub World

Hot Tub World
Hot Tub World

One of Huddersfield’s best known leisure businesses is sponsoring the Sports Personality category.

Hot Tub World, based at Deighton Mills, Leeds Road, understands the benefit of relaxation following a sports workout and would recommend a hot tub to anyone.

John Whiteley, who runs Hot Tub World with his business partner Neil Armstrong, said: “At one time hot tubs were viewed as being a `party’ animal, purely for fun. Now, however, people have realised the benefits of warm water massage to ease tired muscles, associated with sports people, and for anyone who suffers with niggling aches and pains. Many of our customers buy a tub simply for health and relaxation.

“We are definitely seeing a new health side to the hot tub market. We also have a very diverse range of customers from those who live in quite humble homes to those who live in million pound mansions.”

Today Hot Tub World has an extensive showroom with 15 tubs on display to suit all requirements and budgets. In the last few years John and Neil have seen sales boom and extend to a 2,000 strong UK-wide customer base.

Hot Tub World was established in 2000 as the first independent specialist in the north of England.