A red carpet under a Hollywood-style covered walkway was laid outside the entrance of the Royal Albert Hall last night so that some of the world's greatest sports performers and their spouses could sashay their way past their adoring public for the second World Sports Awards.

The awards are the brainchild of the former Austrian ski-jumper Hubert Neuper, an Olympic silver medallist, and are underwritten by the multi-millionaire owner of the producers of the Red Bull tonic drink Dietrich Mateschitz, who is also Austrian. Their partnership with Nike ensured that at least some of the world's top performers attended. In truth, it was a curious contrast between some of the most recognisable sportsmen and women in the world, like the Olympic champion sprinters Marion Jones and Maurice Greene, Steve Redgrave, Michael Schumacher and Lennox Lewis, and some of the most obscure.

In the latter group were men like Felix Baumgartner, a base jumper from Austria, the Scottish hill-runner Angela Mudge and Bjorn Dunkerbeck, a windsurfer from Spain who has won 36 world championship titles in his career.

Redgrave, recently voted the BBC's sports personality of the year, was the only rower in the water sports group, the other four being swimmers, which would have seemed to make it impossible to judge. And the ball sports category included not just different sizes of ball but ones which you could either slam dunk, serve for an ace or drive off a tee. Thus the American basketball star Shaquille O'Neal was pitched alongside Pete Sampras and Tiger Woods, neither of whom were able to attend. David Beckham, Rivaldo and Zinedine Zidane also had to cry off in the football section while another nominee, Arsenal's Thierry Henry, was at home watching the ceremony on television, leaving only Luis Figo, who won fortunately. But there were some spectacular names among the judges, including Bob Beamon, Nadia Comaneci, Niki Lauda and the moon-walker Buzz Aldrin. Choosing the final 75 sportsmen and women for last night's ceremony was a process almost as complicated as electing a new Pontiff. Originally, 71 sports journalists from 30 countries nominated five male and female athletes from a shortlist of 260 names. At the end of October, a world jury chaired by the IOC president Juan Antonio Samaranch and including Muhammad Ali, Wayne Gretsky, Steffi Graf and Fifa's president Sepp Blatter whittled the names down to 75.