BBC Sports Personality Of The Year / Ralph Ellis / 21 December 2011 /

Mo Farah's unstinting commitment makes him a decent bet for Sports Personality of the Year tomorrow night, says Ralph Ellis. And even if you don't agree, you might want to check out the Winner Without Cavendish market.

I can't find an exact figure for exactly how many squillions of pounds Nike spend on the research and development of running shoes every year. And the amount they give to Mo Farah for working out at their training facility in Portland, Oregon, and endorsing their footwear doesn't seem to have been made public either.

But I just hope that whoever in the Corporation's HQ signs the cheques to Britain's brilliant 10,000 metres world champion hasn't read a quite fascinating interview he's given to The Times. For it seems that the 28-year-old's drive to cap a couple of brilliant years with an Olympics Gold in London in 2012 is being aided by running barefoot.

"We do that on the grass and it helps you to be more on your toes. It makes the foot stronger," he's explained to Rick Broadbent. "When you have a shoe on you are not using the muscles in your toes, but when you are sprinting you definitely need the toes to help rip off the track and push off."

That endorsement seems to have been left out of the publicity for the Nike Air Max plus 2012 - the latest shoe released by the American giants at a cool £130 per pair. But it does illustrate the lengths that Farah has been prepared to go to in pursuit of excellence. And it makes me wonder if his story might tug a few heartstrings in the voting for the BBC Sports Personality of the Year award tomorrow night.

His sacrifices have been far deeper than running barefoot. Deeper even than uprooting his new bride and stepdaughter to go live in the US. When in 2010 they were stranded at the end of their honeymoon in Zanzibar because of the ash cloud he left Mrs Farah to find her own way home and headed off to run in the Kenyan mountains to maintain his fitness - and won two gold medals at the European Championships a few months later. His story this year - bouncing back from throwing away a lead in the 5,000metres final to win gold at 10k - is inspiring.

I'm with the Betfair Contrarian in doubting whether the British public are ready to vote for a cyclist, even if Mark Cavendish is now [1.37] to lift the BBC's prize. I've had money for a couple of months on Rory McIlroy, but I'm beginning to fear the golf vote will be split between his brilliant display of how to conquer nerves at Augusta and Darren Clarke's inspiring Open win in the howling gales and driving rain at Sandwich,

That makes Mo the man to back at [16.5]. Or if you don't want to go against such a heavy favourite you can get a tidy [3.1] on him in the winner without Cavendish market. And all things considered, I'll stay away from making the pun about it being a shoe-in!

Five things you might not know about Mo Farah
1. Born in March 1983 in Mogadishu, Somalia, he lived in Djibouti, but the perception that he grew up in poverty is wrong. His grandfather worked in a bank and his family had what he has described as 'a comfortable life'.

2. He moved to London aged nine to be closer to his father, an IT consultant from Hounslow in London. On his first day at school he knew only three phrases of English, one of which was 'Come on, then'. He made the mistake of saying it to the hardest kid in the class and got in a fight!

3. Encouraged to concentrate on running by a friendly PE teacher, he was 14 when he won the first of five English schools cross country titles

4. Paula Radcliffe discreetly paid the bill for him to take driving lessons so he could more easily travel to training sessions at Windsor

5. He's an Arsenal fan. But oddly it wasn't any of the flair players but Lee Dixon and Tony Adams whose pictures shared space on his wall with all-time idol Muhammad Ali.

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