It Was a Very Good Year

Year in Review

2012 was a brilliant year for British sport with Wiggo winning Le Tour, Team GB’s sensational performance in the Olympics & Chelsea upsetting the odds to win the Champions League.

Bolt & Phelps underlined their legendary status with standout performances in the summer. Rudisha’s 800 metre win was even better.

In football, Spain showed they’re still a class above the rest, winning Euro 2012 with style. Aguero’s injury time winner for Man City capped the most exciting finish to a top flight title race since 1989. Leo Messi broke Gerd Muller’s record for goals in a calendar year, with an astonishing 91, helping Barcelona to a nine point lead in La Liga.

Europe pulled off one of the great comebacks in the Ryder Cup.

It was another vintage year in tennis.  The marathon Aussie Open final, record-breaking  wins for Nadal at the French & Federer at Wimbledon. Murray breaking his grand slam duck & the winning the Olympic title. Serena, when fit & focused, proved to be a class apart from the rest, but it seems Azarenka may be getting closer.

Alistair Cook scored 562 runs & broke the English record for most Test centuries, captaining the side to a rare Test series win in India. He will surely break many more batting records.

Uefa Champions League round of 16

A tough draw for the Britsih clubs. Both Man U & Celtic are favoured to go out by the bookies. (Arsenal’s chances are rated 50-50) Madrid v United should be closer than the odds suggest, but I think all the British sides will go out.

Performance of the Month

England’s great upset win over the All Blacks, ending their 20 match unbeaten streak.

Honourable mention: Juan Manuel Marquez getting his revenge for being on the wrong side of some questionable points decisions with a brutal one-punch knockout of Manny Pacquiao.

As Good As It Gets

Olympics Review

Team GB had done exceptionally well in Beijing, London 2012 was even better.

Some Brits underperformed, but mostly they overperformed. The home crowd roar inspired them to ignore burning lungs, tired legs, aches & pains.

What a turnaround from Atlanta 96 where GB won just one gold (plus eight silver & six bronze). I expect GB to struggle to match that medal haul in the future, & finish around 5-6^th in the medal table in Rio.

A highly personal idiosyncratic choice of fave moments:

The first Saturday night athletics, natch.

Gemma Gibbons, who belied her lowly world ranking (42) to win silver in the judo. She mouthed ‘I love you mum’ to the skies, in memory of her late mother, after her exhausting, golden score victory in the semi-final over the world champion.

David Rudisha, who had declared before the 800 metres final he intended to break the world record, & did exactly that, leading from gun to tape with a blistering run.

The women’s triathlon ending in a sprint finish.

The exuberant, joyful celebrations of Jade Jones when she won taekwondo goal.

Andy Murray finally winning a best of five sets final, & doing it against Federer. In the gold medal match his level of play & focus was exceptional, and made the great man look ordinary.

Performance of the Games

So many exceptional performances to choose from, including the usual suspects such as Bolt & Phelps. I’ll go for Mo Farah in the 5000 metres. Most of the opposition were fresh, not having done the 10k. In the home straight it seemed the Kenyan was catching, but Farah found another gear, then it seemed the Ethiopian Gebremeskel was gaining on him, again he found the strength to kick clear.

Premier League Predictions

Man City to regain title, but by a more comfortable margin this time-5 points. United to be the closest challengers, pushed closely by Chelsea.

August Review

Some standout performances from the World Athletics Champs I particularly enjoyed:
Kirani James & David Rudisha in the 400 & 800 m respectively. James ran down the more fancied American Merritt in the final straight, Rudisha led from gun to tape.The Brits: Mo Farah’s gold & silver in the 5 & 10k, Dai Greene (G in 400 m H ). Hannah England’s unexpected silver in the 1500 m marks her out as a great prospect for 2012. Both Ennis & Idowu expressed their disappointment with silver medals, but will be spurred on to go one better at London 2012.
Bolt’s DQ from the 100 m is a strong argument for the current one false start DQ rule, brought in to suit TV scheduling, to be changed. As the rule stands you can be eliminated for only twitching in the blocks. The idea that the Olympic final could be run potentially without the sport's biggest star on the start line is madness to me. The IAAF need a re-think.


Performance of the month: the England test cricket team reaching the no.1 spot in the world rankings with a 4-0 series sweep of (previous no.1 team) India.