HELSINKI, January 19, 2017 - Finland's 70th Sports Personality of the Year is Leo-Pekka Tähti, who picked up the award on Tuesday night at a gala awards dinner in Helsinki. Tähti has won the last four Paralympic gold medals in his event, the T54 100m sprint, and in 2004 also won the 200m sprint.

He is the European number one in his event, and still holds the world record in T54 100m he set in London in 2012.

He is the first Paralympic athlete to win the prize, and beat our tennis player Henri Kontinen, who won the mixed doubles title at Wimbledon, and Mira Potkonen, who took bronze in the lightweight division of the boxing tournament at the Rio Olympics.

Tähti won more than half the votes cast by members of Finland's sports journalists union for the award this year. Members are asked to name a minimum of five and a maximum of ten sportspeople in descending order. Ten points are awarded for the top spot, nine for the next and so on.

Four years ago Tähti had won the most votes for top spot after winning gold at the London Paralympics, but he lost out in the total points count as 50 of Finland's 650 card-carrying sports reporters did not choose him in their list at all. Windsurfer Tuuli Petäjä-Sirén was named winner that year.