Liverpool last night hosted the biggest sports awards ever staged in the UK, after a stunning year of sporting success. Richard Down reports from the Echo Arena Liverpool

THE biggest names in the sporting world last night showered praise on Liverpool as the city hosted celebration of a hugely successful year for British sporting achievement.

The BBC Sports Personality of the Year was the biggest ever requiring 65km of cables, 130 tonnes of scenery and used a crew and cast of 300 to get up and running.

The enormous scale of the event followed an equally huge year of British sporting achievement.

Lewis Hamilton became the youngest ever Formula One champion, Andy Murray landed his first major titles, and Team GB’s Olympic performance was the best in decades.

Last night every medal winner, including Liverpool’s own superheavyweight boxing medallist David Price, descended on Kings Dock.

Chris Hoy and the British cycling team walked away with the top honours.

For the Scottish gold medallist a series of swift costume changes were needed in the dedicated cycling changing rooms tucked away in the bowels of the auditorium.

He, along with his team-mates, arrived in stylish evening wear posing for pictures on the purple carpet outside the arena. They then had to nip backstage to don their helmets and cycling shorts to ride into the arena bowl to collect their team trophy.

A final change was needed for Chris to be ready to take the coveted award in full suit and tie.

He was clearly stunned to win the individual award and revealed he had been checking the bookmakers odds in the run up to the show.

Backstage he told the Daily Post: “I was looking at the betting last week and I was lagging back in third.