THIS is surely going to be one of the greatest sporting years in living memory. Not only will England's footballers be going for glory at the European Championships, but the whole nation will come to a standstill at the end of July for the London Olympic Games.

But it is not just on a national level that sportsmen and sportswomen will be starring. Our Sports Awards 2012 will honour those local heroes and teams that have excelled between September 2011 and the end of the Olympic Games.

"There has been a change in format this year, in more ways than one," sports editor Glenn Garrett said. "Firstly, we have extended the nomination period to tie in with the Olympic Games. We fully expect this to be truly a great year of sport and want to give the best possible opportunity to enable everyone, in every sport, the chance to be nominated.

"Secondly, we will be changing how the winners will be decided.

"In the past this has been purely a public vote, but now we will be asking the public to give us a shortlist and then we will decide who deserves to be crowned sports personality of the year. We really want these awards to represent outstanding achievement and feel this is the best way of doing so.

"These awards always attract a spectacular response and I would urge all readers to get nominating straight away."

Now we want to hear from YOU. We want to know who you think should be nominated for one of our prestigious awards in the Kent and Sussex Courier readership area. The 2012 Sports Awards presentation night will be at Lingfield Racecourse on October 25.