Mo at the Double

There were several stand-out performances at the World Athletics championships. There was Bolt, of course, who did the sprint treble (100, 200m, 4x1 relay) again. Tirunesh Dibaba continued her record of having never lost a competitive 10k race, & is now 11 for 11. The devastating kick finish is now a Mo Farah trademark, and he used it twice as he had to dig deep  to complete the 5 & 10k double. Bekele is the only other man to have done the ‘double double’ at both the Olympics & worlds.

Rafa Nadal’s awesome form continues. He won two Masters titles on hard courts in August, including on the fast courts of Cincinnati, which is supposed to be his weakest surface. His only blip has been Wimbledon, with a staggering 11 finals & nine titles this year.

Performance of the Month

Mo Farah.

Honourable mentions:
Nadal.
Katie Ledecky , successor to Becky Adlington as the long-distance swimming queen. She set 2 world records and won 4 golds at the worlds.

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.

The History Boys

Spain put on a masterclass against Italy to retain the European championship. Portugal had taken them to penalties in the semi & I thought a repeat could be on the cards in the final, but Spain were irresistible. Not only are they setting new standards of technical play, but Del Bosque has also used revolutionary tactics. The Spanish starting formation was six passing midfielders with no conventional centre-forward, though you would expect David Villa to come back into the team when fit. Italy can be proud of surpassing all expectations with an excellent win over Germany in the semi.

June has been quite the month for record breaking, with Nadal breaking Borg’s record by winning his seventh title at Roland Garros. Overall the French Open had enough epic matches (Mathieu-Isner, 18-16 in the 5^{th set}) & upsets to be one of the best editions of recent years. Judging by the first week though, Wimbledon has trumped it. There was the biggest underdog win in a slam for many years with Rosol over Nadal, & the Cilic Querrey 5hr 30 marathon (17-15 in the 5^th).

Nadal’s loss to Rosol was just one of those freak results where the Czech played the game of his life, hitting the lines with fearsome power: 65 winners, including a 99 mph backhand & numerous aces. Nadal’s performance in the French final typified his mental strength for me. At the start of the 4th set he lost a 44 shot rally & dropped serve. Other players would have been discouraged, but Nadal held his next service game. The rain break that followed didn’t help Djokovic's momentum (he had won 8 of the last 9 games) & he was broken when they resumed the next day, but Nadal was the deserved winner.

It’s often said we are lucky to be in a golden age of tennis, with Federer, Nadal & Djokovic all playing to such a high level & continually setting new records. The same could now be said with Spain now having very strong claims to be the best national team ever. Brazil, Germany, Holland, Argentina & Hungary have produced sides with exceptional talent in the past, but it’s tough to argue with Spain’s run of trophies.

Performance of the Month

The history makers, Spain.

Honourable mentions:
Rafa Nadal.
Yohan Blake, who clocked a 9.75 100 m to beat Bolt at the Jamaican Olympic trials & then repeated it in the 200 final.

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.

Form is Temporary

Roger Federer: An Apology

In my post of 12 July I had dared to suggest that Roger would never win another Grand Slam. In the US Open final Monday against Murray, he was back to his imperious best. On this form, he could match Sampras all-time record of 14 Slams as early as January in Melbourne. The runner-up was the first Brit in a Slam final since the Gregster in 1997(L to Rafter, also at the US).This has been Murray’s breakthrough year. He had never gone beyond a Slam fourth round before this year, but then reached the quarters of Wimbledon. He then beat Djokovic twice, including winning TMS Cincinnati, and beat Nadal for the first time to reach the final at Flushing Meadows, taking him up to no. 4 in the world rankings. Murray has all the ingredients-talent, guts, focus & fitness- to reach, & win, more Slam finals in the future.

Serena Williams regained the no. 1 ranking by becoming champ again (beating Venus in the quarters). The Williams sisters seem to have been around forever, so the tendency is to become blasé about their achievements, but they have now won 16 Slam singles titles between them (the US was Serena’s 9th). Arguably they are the most successful sporting siblings ever, though you could also make a case for the Charlton brothers or the Waugh twins.

Olympics review

So many highlights to pick from. Apart from the obvious candidates, Phelps & Bolt, my personal faves: Lezak overhauling a body length deficit in the last 50 in the 4x100 free relay. The GB rowing four overhauling the Australians in the last 250 m. Amazing final lap sprints from the Ethiopian men & women in the 5 & 10 k track races. From a British perspective, the ‘sitting-down’ sports exceeded expectations, but the underperformance of the athletics is a worry. The athletes need to raise their level or there will be a lot of finals at 2012 with no home representation. However, the Team GB result to finish fourth in the medals table was a fantastic achievement, behind only the superpowers (China, USA, Russia)

Beijing 2008

I was discussing the Olympics with a friend this morning. He thought two weeks of it was mostly a bore, though he might catch some of the boxing & the football. I tried to convince him otherwise.

How can you not be excited by the Olympics? Michael Phelps will again be trying to match or better Mark Spitz's record haul of seven gold medals in a single games. In the mens 100 metres the current & former world record holders, Usain Bolt & Asana Powell (Jamaica) v Tyson Gay, who ran a wind-assisted 9.68 in the US trials. Nadal, Federer, Djokovic & the Murray brothers in the tennis. If you need the patriotic angle to stir your interest, prospects for a good haul of British gold medals are excellent. British cycling has never been stronger & will hope to match their superb performance from the worlds. Shanaze Reade & Vicky Pendleton will be the favourites in the BMX & sprint respectively. Rebecca Romero, previously a rowing medallist will try to medal on the track. Bradley Wiggins is the favourite for the Individual Pursuit. Mark Cavendish, fresh from winning four stages in Le Tour, will ride the Madison & possibly the IP. The coxless four rowers will try to retain their title. Triple jumper Philips Idowu has the world leading jump this year & won the world indoor title. Sailor Ben Ainslie is the favourite in the Finn class. Last but not least (except in stature) what a story it would be if 14 year-old Tom Daley could win a medal in the diving.

The new Premiership season could be boring if The Big Four monopoly can’t be broken. The only team who appear to have a chance of making the breakthrough this season are Spurs. Although they have sold Keane, & it’s rumoured Berbatov is on his way, they’ve bought Modric & Giovanni & have an outside chance of getting Arshavin.