{"id":324071,"date":"2025-12-19T05:16:07","date_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:16:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324071\/"},"modified":"2025-12-19T05:16:07","modified_gmt":"2025-12-19T05:16:07","slug":"rory-mcilroy-stops-interview-as-he-fights-back-tears-when-paying-touching-tribute-at-sports-personality-of-the-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/324071\/","title":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy stops interview as he fights back tears when paying touching tribute at Sports Personality of the Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

Rory McIlroy cut an emotional figure when paying tribute to two inspiring award winners at the Sports Personality of the Year ceremony.<\/p>\n

The Helen Rollason award is named after the late BBC Sport journalist and acknowledges ‘outstanding achievement in the face of adversity’.<\/p>\n

\"Sergio<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Sergio Aguiar and Stancombe, fathers of two victims of the horrifying Southport attack, won the Helen Rollason award for their inspirational workCredit: BBC<\/p>\n

Sergio Aguiar and David Stancombe were the recipients this year.<\/p>\n

Their daughters Alice da Silva Aguiar and Elsie Dot Stancombe, and Bebe King, were tragically killed in the horrifying Southport attack in 2024.<\/p>\n

All three families have worked to build lasting legacies through their projects Alice’s WonderDance, Elsie’s Story and Bebe’s Hive.<\/p>\n

Sergio and David ran the 2025 London Marathon in their memory, with money being raised for a new playground at Alice and Bebe’s school.<\/p>\n

READ MORE ON RORY MCILROY<\/p>\n

On Thursday night, they were presented with the award by comedian John Bishop and Liverpool legend Robbie Fowler.<\/p>\n

On the same night he was named the Sports Personality of the Year<\/a>, McIlroy had some touching words for the two fathers.<\/p>\n

“I think being a father of a little girl, seeing Alice and Elsie’s dads up there tonight, they are two absolute heroes,” he said.<\/p>\n

McIlroy<\/a> began tearing up and had to take a brief pause, and was met with a round of applause from the audience.<\/p>\n

“You know, being a dad, it makes the losses a lot easier,” he continued. <\/p>\n

“But it also makes the good moments even more special, you know?<\/p>\n

\"Rory<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

McIlroy needed a moment to compose himself as he paid a touching tribute<\/p>\n

“So to share that with Erica and Poppy, and my whole family, they’ve watched me go through all of this.<\/p>\n

“I’m sure a lot of the public has, and I feel like everyone’s been on this journey with me.<\/p>\n

“As you know, I could feel everyone with me on that day [when he won the Masters].”<\/p>\n

‘I want to dedicate this award to our three girls’<\/p>\n

After receiving the Helen Rollason award, both Sergio and David took time to pay their own tributes to Alice, Elsie and Bebe.<\/p>\n

“I’m very grateful to accept the award tonight but I’m just a dad keeping a promise to his little girl,” David said.<\/p>\n

“Elsie wanted me to run the London Marathon and I did. It gave me a massive focus through the hardest time I’ve ever lived through.”<\/p>\n

Read More on talkSPORT\"Sergio<\/a><\/p>\n

3<\/p>\n

Aguiar and Stancombe ran the London Marathon in memory of their daughtersCredit: BBC<\/p>\n

“I want to dedicate this award to our three girls: Alice, Elsie and Bebe. Keep dancing,” Sergio added.<\/p>\n

“I want to spread Alice’s magic across the world. I am going to keep running and raising money for her foundation.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Rory McIlroy cut an emotional figure when paying tribute to two inspiring award winners at the Sports Personality…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":324072,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[127350,5904,127460,2623,127349,101,127302,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-324071","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-golf","tag-david-stancombe","tag-golf","tag-helen-rollason-award","tag-rory-mcilroy","tag-sergio-aguiar","tag-sports","tag-sports-personality-of-the-year","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324071","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=324071"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/324071\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/324072"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=324071"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=324071"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=324071"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}