KEY POINTS:
The All Blacks are in the race for the Laureus world sports team of the year award for the second consecutive year.
Their rivals for the awards to be announced in Barcelona on April 2 are Uefa Champions League soccer winners FC Barcelona, the European Ryder Cup golf
team, the Italian World Cup soccer team, the Renault Formula One team and the world champion Spanish basketball team.
When nominations were announced in Barcelona, the All Blacks had confirmed their status as the best rugby team in the world last year.
They won the Tri-Nations championship for a seventh time, beat Ireland twice, beat Argentina and inflicted a record 41-20 defeat on England at Twickenham in November.
They then beat France twice, one a crushing 47-3 victory in Lyon, and then beat Wales.
The All Blacks also had a clean sweep of the major rugby awards in 2006 and won the International Rugby Board team of the year award.
Graham Henry was named coach of the year and captain Richie McCaw was selected as player of the year.
The Laureus nominations for seven categories were made by 1068 journalists from 128 countries.
The winners will be chosen by the members of the 43-strong Laureus World Sports Academy, headed by former Olympic 400m champion Edwin Moses and including former All Blacks captain Sean Fitzpatrick, in April.
Tennis world No 1 Roger Federer, seven-times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and top golfer Tiger Woods are all in the running for their third sportsman of the year award.
Tennis Grand Slam champions Amelie Mauresmo and Maria Sharapova, and swimmer Laure Manaudou, who won four gold medals at the 2006 European swimming championships, are among the candidates for the sportswoman of the year.
The academy will make public their decisions in the eighth edition of the annual event at a televised ceremony in Barcelona on April 2.
"It has been a great year for sport and the Academy are going to find it extremely difficult to decide who to vote for as winners," academy chairman Moses said.
Dutch wheelchair tennis champion Esther Vergeer, winner of the Laureus disability award in 2002, has been nominated for the fourth time after an unbeaten 2006.
Other awards include breakthrough of the year, comeback of the year and action sportsperson of the year.
For the latter, Spanish kiteboarder Gisela Pulido is the youngest nominee at age 12.
NOMINATIONS
Sportsman: Fernando Alonso (motor racing), Fabio Cannavaro (soccer), Roger Federer (tennis), Asafa Powell (athletics), Michael Schumacher (motor racing), Tiger Woods (golf)
Sportswoman: Justine Henin (tennis), Yelena Isinbayeva (athletics), Carolina Kluft (athletics), Laure Manaudou (swimming), Amelie Mauresmo (tennis), Maria Sharapova (tennis)
Team: All Blacks (rugby), FC Barcelona (soccer), European Ryder Cup team (golf), Italy men's football team (soccer), Renault Formula One team (motor racing), Spanish Basketball team
- NZPA
