Sportskeeda Awards 2014: And the winners are...

After revealing the nominees at the end of December, we finally have the results and the winners of the Sportskeeda Awards for 2014. Over the course of the last few weeks, we asked our top writers to narrow down a long list of nominees to a select few and then asked our readers to select a winner by voting for their best sportsperson or performance.

Here are your winners:

Indian Sportsperson of the Year: Jitu Rai

This category saw a number of high profile stars like Sania Mirza, Virat Kohli, Saina Nehwal and Mary Kom. But Jitu Rai did India proud by winning a number of major events in 2014.

The Naib-Subedar in the 11th Gorkha Regiment of the Indian Army first won a silver medal at the ISSF World Cup followed by a gold medal in the 10m air pistol and silver medal in the 50m air pistol at the Maribor World Cup, thereby guiding India to the World No.1 ranking in the 10m air pistol and fourth in the 50m air pistol.

He then won the gold medal twice – at the Commonwealth Games and the Asian Games in the 50m air pistol event, and also won a bronze medal in the 10m pistol team event at Incheon.

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Best Performance of the Year: Virat Kohli’s twin centuries vs Australia at Adelaide

India’s stand-in captain took the fight to the Australian bowlers Down Under in the first test match of the Border-Gavaskar Trophy with two commanding innings of 115 and 141 to give India a fighting chance. He nearly won them the game, falling short with the target just within reach.

The 26-year-old set a number of records, including becoming the youngest Test captain ever to hit two centuries in a single match and the highest number of runs scored by any player on his captaincy debut (256).

The Indian batsman won 45.2% of the votes cast by the readers to win the award while Angel Di Maria’s performance for Real Madrid in the UEFA Champions League final came in second with 29.3%. Indian hockey goalkeeper P R Sreejesh’s performance against Pakistan in the Asian Games gold medal match came in third with 11.5%.

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Sportsperson of the Year: Cristiano Ronaldo

With almost 300 more votes than the next best competitor, Real Madrid’s Cristiano Ronaldo was the unanimous choice by our readers for the Sportsperson of the Year award. Having won both the Ballon d’Or and the UEFA European Player of the Year award last year, Ronaldo continues to elevate himself and his performance levels to new heights.

Having won the Copa del Rey and their 10th Champions League crown (La Decima), the Portuguese star has now helped Los Blancos finish the year with a 22-game win streak (in all competitions) and are also top of the Liga table with a game in hand.

Ronaldo finished 2014 with 61 goals and 22 assists in 60 games for both club and country. He beat Wimbledon champion Novak Djokovic and the 2014 F1 champion Lewis Hamilton to win the award.