Paralympic hero David Weir came fifth in last night's Sports Personality of the Year voting to cap an extraordinary year for the wheelchair racer.

The Roundshaw 33-year-old got 114,633 votes to come behind winner cyclist Bradley Wiggins, heptathlete Jessica Ennis, tennis player Andy Murray and runner Mo Farah.

The Weirwolf polled 7.05 per cent of the total vote and beat the likes of cyclist Sir Chris Hoy and sailor Ben Ainslie after a year in which Weir won four Paralympic gold medals, his sixth London Marathon, had Sutton Arena renamed the David Weir Arena in his honour and became a father for the third time.

Weir took to the social network Twitter to thank his fans for their support in the run up to the event at the ExCel Arena in London. He said: "Thanks for all the lovely tweets about SPOTY means a lot to be getting all this support now, I've been racing 16 years and glad everyone has been given the chance to come and watch all us Paralympians doing what we do."

Tweeting after the winner was revealed by David Beckham he added: "Thanks for all your messages it couldn't of gone to a better man #wiggo well done mate."

Weir received several honourable mentions during the evening, including from winner Wiggins, and was interviewed about his year on stage. He said: "When you race in your home country the emotions are blown out of the water. I was running on adrenaline.

"To tell the truth, before the first race, the 5km, I was bricking it. I was in my room, I couldn't keep still. I was nervous because it was my home games and I didn't know what to expect.

"I was in the best shape ever and once I got on that track everything just goes. I knew they would fall into my hands."

Weir, who still trains in the area, won golds in the marathon, 800m, 5km and 1,500m to go with the two golds he won in Beijing in 2008. He and partner Emily Thorn had their third child in October and named her Tillia Grace London Weir following the Paralympics in the city. Tillia is a sister to Weir's daughter Ronie and son Mason.