AMIR Khan is one of six nominations in the Newcomer of the Year category in the prestigious Laureus World sports awards.

The 18-year-old Olympic silver medallist from Bolton, who is hotly-tipped to turn professional in the next couple of months, will attend the awards night in Estoril, Portugal in May.

Khan faces competition from fellow Olympians China's Liu Xiang, aged 21, the first Chinese man to win an Olympic track title with gold in the 110 metres hurdles in a world record equalling time, and his Chinese colleague Huina Xing, aged 20, who won the 10,000 metres gold medal.

Other nominees include Laure Manaudou, aged 17, 25th in the world when she went into the Olympics, who won France's first ever women's swimming gold medal in the 400 metres freestyle.

Also shortlisted are Russia's Svetlana Kuznetsova following her victory in the US Open Grand Slam tennis championship at the age of 19 and Spain's Dani Pedrosa, also 19, who became the youngest ever World 250cc Motorcycling Champion.