Gordon Reid has been nominated for the Athlete of the Month award after winning his first Grand Slam singles title ©Getty Images

Britain’s Gordon Reid is one of five nominees for the first International Paralympic Committee (IPC) Athlete of the Month award of 2016, after earning his maiden men's wheelchair tennis singles Grand Slam title.

The 24-year-old secured impressive victories over world number one Shingo Kunieda of Japan and Argentina’s Gustavo Fernandez to reach his first singles final at the Australian Open.

He was then able to clinch a straight sets win over Belgium’s Joachim Gerard, the winner of the IPC Athlete of the Month award in December, to become the first British player to secure the title.

Alongside Kunieda, Reid looked likely to secure the men’s doubles title to complete a fine sequence of performances in Melbourne.

However, after seeing two match points slip by, they were forced to settle for being runners-up to France’s Stéphane Houdet and Nicolas Peifer, who triumphed 6-3, 3-6, 7-5.

Reid’s fellow Briton, Helena Lucas, has also been nominated for the award for January, following her performances at the Sailing World Cup in Miami.

The London 2012 Paralympic champion dominated the 2.4mR class by winning seven of the 10 races during the regatta to comfortably claim gold.

Abdulla Sultan Alaryani was another athlete to enjoy gold medal success, with the United Arab Emirates’ shooter ending top of the podium on two occasions, as well as earning a silver medal at the IPC Shooting World Cup.

France's Marie Bochet continued her unbeaten run during World Cup events in January
France's Marie Bochet continued her unbeaten run during World Cup events in January ©Getty Images

Competing in front of his home crowd in Al Ain, the 45-year-old finished with the top scores in both the men’s 10 metre air rifle standing SH1 and the 50m rifle three positions competitions.

The list of nominees is completed by two Alpine skiers in Italy’s Giacomo Bertagnolli and France’s Marie Bochet.

Bertagnolli secured his maiden giant slalom visually impaired World Cup victory in Slovenia, alongside his guide Fabrizio Casal, finishing ahead of Russia’s world champion Valerii Redkozubov.

The 17-year-old followed up the success with two further victories at World Cup competitions during the month.

Meanwhile, Bochet has continued to be the dominant force in the women’s standing field, as she extended her unbeaten run this season by winning all her races in both speed and technical competitions in January.

Her run of wins seen her move to a total of 55 World Cup victories.

The nominations are compiled from submissions by National Paralympic Committees and International Federations.

The public has until 12pm (CET) on February 9 to vote for the athlete they want to win, using the online poll here.