(DEC 17) Katie Taylor and Ken Egan have been short-listed for the RTE Sportsperson of the year Award.  The award ceremony will be shown live on RTE next Sunday night from O'Reilly Hall, UCD, in association with the Irish Sports Council.  Amateur boxing is the only sport to have two nominees.

Taylor claimed her second World lightweight title in a row in Ningbo City, China recently and picked the boxer of the tournament award.

The Bray woman was also named AIBA World female boxer of the year in Moscow last week.

Egan, from the Neilstown club in Dublin, came within one bout of joining an illustrious cast which includes Muhammad Ali - who won light heavyweight gold at the 1960 Olympic Games in Rome - at the 29th Olympiad in Beijing.

But the eight times Irish senior champion and 2008 European Union gold medalist had to settle for silver after he was edged out by Chinese light heavyweight Xiaoping Zhang in the 81Kg Olympic final.

RTE, in association with the Irish Sports Council, will also present the Sports team of 2008 award on Sunday night along with the RTE/Irish Sports Council's Hall of Fame award.

The nominees for the RTE Sportsperson of the year award are:

Padraig Harrington
Ken Egan
Sean Cavanagh
Eoin Larkin
Ronan O'Gara
Jason Smyth
Aidan O'Brien
Brian Murphy
Katie Taylor