Sportsman of the Year

Rendall Munroe

Rendall Munroe entered 2009 as a contender for world honours after a terrific year. Munroe claimed the European super-bantamweight title in Nottingham in March last year with a points win over Spanish power puncher Kiko Martinez. That was a massive upset and catapulted the bin man from Northfields into the top 10 of the world rankings.

He has since gone on to make three successful defences of the belt and

establish himself as one of British boxing’s rising stars.

Munroe took up the sport as a teenager with uncle Dave ‘Sticky’ Pratt at Old Robin Hood Amateur Boxing Club in the city – after having a row with his mum! – and has made a massive impact since turning to the professional ranks in 2003.

He was named the Midlands Area Council’s boxer of the year and was nominated for the British Boxing Board of Control’s boxer of the year award, along with Ricky Hatton, Joe Calzaghe and David Haye.

Along with the European title, Munroe has also held the English belt, and manager Mike Shinfield hopes a fourth successful defence in a rematch with Martinez this month could lead to a world title challenge this year.

Yusuf Saleh

Martial arts expert Yusuf Saleh has become accustomed to picking up medals and awards. There is no sign of him slowing down, either, if 2008 was anything to go buy.

The CKI School of Martial Arts student, now 38, has been representing England in his chosen sport for close on a dozen years, achieving some spectacular successes in that time.

In the past year, his talents have seen him take gold, silver and bronze medals at the national championships, which set him up to tackle the BBI martial arts and WKA karate world championships in Florida.

Yusuf, a former Mercury Sportsman of the Year, was at the peak of his powers in the States, capturing two world titles and adding a cluster of silver and bronze awards to go with those won by his club-mates in the USA.

As well as competing, Yusuf is a deputy coach with the city’s

flourishing CKI organisation, where has helped to develop a number of world champions while continuing to add to his own collection of titles.

His overall contribution played a part in helping CKI to win the Queen’s Award for Voluntary and Community Service in 2008.

Jordan Crane

Leicester Tigers’ star Jordan Crane may look back on 2008 as a watershed in his career. The back-row forward was named man of the series as England Saxons retained

the Churchill Cup in North America in June.

His reward was a place in Martin Johnson’s first England Elite Player Squad, making his full debut off the bench against world champions South Africa at Twickenham in November.

Jordan is not the sort of player to get carried away by what has been a meteoric rise.

“It is what I have been working towards and I went out to North America trying to force my way into the EPS,” he said after getting the nod from Johnno.

Jordan joined Leicester from Leeds in the summer of 2006, but if things did not immediately go to plan, they did eventually begin to fall into place.

Jordan’s game has come on in leaps and bounds, with the competitive back-row situation at the club helping to spur him on.

“One of the main reasons why I came here was because the back row at Tigers has always been really competitive,” he said.

“They have always had good players and you can only learn from those sort of players.”

Other nominees...

Andy King

Barinder Singh

Jamie Caven

Greg Smith

Matty Fryatt

Jahmaine Smyle

JD Hylton

Tom Styles

Charlie Ford

Jason Palmer

Rich Davis

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