This year's Safaricom Sports Personality of the Year Awards gala night will; take place on December 6 at the Carnivore.

According to the panel secretary Simon Chebon, preparations for the event are in full gear and they hope to deliver the best gal in their ninth year. He said they have laid ground rules for the awards that will culminate in the main gala on December 6.

He predicted a tight competition this year, given the high profile events that have been held this year. Chebon said the fact that Olympic Games and Paralympics were held this year makes the process even mind boggling. He said besides the two, there has also been events like the World Junior Athletics Championships which took place in Barcelona, Spain, and the African Senior Athletics Championships held in Benin.

"Kenyans, as usual, also dominated the big city marathon races and the very successful Safaricom Safari Sevens Rugby tournament also recorded some good performances by the Kenyan teams, Shujaa and Morans, not to forget the Kenyan Premier League, which is ongoing and threatening to go to the wire," he said .

"We are heading to one of our very competitive years in our SOYA awards history," commented Panel Chair Evelyn Watta. "The men seem to have edged the women in this year's top performances and we shall be spoilt for choice when selecting the men," said Watta. The year's awards will again be supported by title sponsors Safaricom, National Bank of Kenya, MultiChoice, Communications Commission of Kenya and Huawei.