At 5.24pm on Sunday evening, the longest drought in British sport was finally
consigned to the history books.
After 77
years of hurt, pain and close calls, Britain has a men’s singles champion at
Wimbledon. Andy Murray battled through
hot temperatures on a scorching day at SW19 and the persistence of his
opponent, the world number one Novak Djokovic to beat the Serbian in straight
sets 6-4, 7-5, 6-4.
The reaction
of Murray afterwards was one of finally achieving his dream, and he has turned
it around in the last 12 months. He had
a lot of people, me included who struggled to accept him as a great tennis
player. Last year’s agonising four-set
final defeat on Centre Court to Swiss master Roger Federer was the turning
point.
Murray’s
emotional speech after the match showed the pain he felt at losing the biggest
match of his career, but since then, the man from a small town in Scotland
called Dunblane has turned his career around.
He dismantled
Federer just under a month later on the same court to win Olympic Gold for Team GB,
before seeing off Djokovic in a five-set marathon to claim his first Grand Slam
at the US Open last September.
Despite
missing the French Open through injury in May, Murray has reached the
Australian Open final, won three ATP titles including the AEGON Championships
at Queen’s Club, and now the biggest prize in tennis.
It is a feat
that I never thought I would ever see – and over 17 million viewers tuned onto
the BBC on Sunday to see history being made in London.
Sporting fans
are going through a golden generation of British success. Last year was simply unbelievable. We had Bradley Wiggins becoming the first
Brit to ever win the Tour de France, cycling’s ultimate race. Manchester City won their first league title
in over 40 years with a finish we will never see again in the Premier League,
there was Chelsea finally becoming Champions of Europe in Munich and of course,
the unforgettable fortnight of London 2012 – an event that truly brought sport
and the nation together as we witnessed some remarkable feats.
Along with
Murray, I've picked out five sporting feats that are among my favourites of
all-time.
There are some that have just
missed out, including Virginia Wade winning Wimbledon in 1977, Sir Steve
Redgrave’s fifth Olympic Gold medal in Sydney in 2000, Liverpool’s breathtaking
comeback to win the Champions League in Istanbul in 2005, and the famous Bolero
dance in 1984 by Jayne Torvill & Christopher Dean that won gold in Sarajevo.
England win the FIFA World Cup, 1966
This memory
is way too early for me, but it is something that we will probably never see again
– well unless we live in fantasy land.
That is England being football world champions.
It happened
on home soil in 1966 and to make it better, West Germany were the opponents in
the final.
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| Bobby Moore lifts the Jules Rimet trophy, England's finest football moment |
Sir Geoff
Hurst was the hero on the day, as he became the first player in World Cup final history to score a hat-trick. England
did lead 2-1, but were taken to extra-time before a linesman from the country
of Azerbaijan declared that Hurst’s second goal did cross the line.
With the Germans
pushing forward to score, gaps opened up in the defence and Hurst broke clear
to complete his hat-trick, with the famous words from commentator Kenneth
Wolstenholme; “And here comes Hurst, there’s some fans on the pitch, they think
it’s all over.”
Alf Ramsay’s
men won the game 4-2, and it was left for iconic captain Bobby Moore (pictured) to collect
the Jules Rimet trophy to declare England as world champions.
Since then,
there were close calls in Italia 90 and Euro 96 for major prizes, before those
darn penalties got in the way, and no-one will forget Germany 1-5 England in
September 2001, but the drought of no success is set to continue for some time to come.
Rugby World Cup Glory Down Under, 2003
Getting up on
a Saturday morning was never more anticipated than on Saturday, 22 November
2003. Telstra Stadium in Sydney was the
venue for the Rugby World Cup final between holders and hosts Australia and Sir
Clive Woodward’s England.
England went
to the finals as favourites and ranked as the number one side according to the
IRB rankings. However, they hadn’t found
their best form in the tournament yet, lucky to beat Samoa in the pool stages
and being outplayed but somehow winning the quarter-final with Wales. Australia meanwhile had stunned the All
Blacks to reach the final against the odds.
It was
Australia who started the quickest, as Loite Tuqiri went over for the opening
try inside five minutes. Penalty goals
on a blustery evening dominated a tense and nail-biting encounter, but Jason
Robinson’s late try towards the end of the first half, coupled with three
penalties from Jonny Wilkinson had England going in 14-5 at the interval.
Mistakes
allowed the Aussies back into the game and with one minute left of normal time,
Elton Flatley converted his third penalty in a row to level the scores at 14-14
and take the game into extra time.
Not much had
changed after the extra 20 minutes, with sudden death approaching and the game
on a knife-edge at 17-17, when Wilkinson, who had missed three earlier drop
goal attempts, got his fourth attempt spot on.
With 25 seconds to go, England were back infront and held on to claim a
20-17 win and be crowned 2003 Rugby World Cup winners.
It was a
momentous day, a superb feat and made English rugby the prime sport for a while
in this country. Another final has
followed since, although more inconsistent form has been the story of the past
decade. However, rugby union never felt
so good than it did on that November morning a decade ago.
England regain the Ashes, 2005
After 17
years of constant defeats from Australia’s legendary cricket side, England
finally had a chance with a decent team of taking on the Australians in the
2005 Ashes series. It turned out to be a
momentous seven weeks for the game of cricket, as it became the most talked
about sport during this period.
Australia
waltzed to a convincing victory in the first test at Lord’s, with legendary
bowler Glenn McGrath doing the damage, taking five wickets in his opening
spell. England fought back at Edgbaston
where McGrath was ruled out through injury.
Despite the best efforts of Shane Warne, Brett Lee and Michael
Kasprowicz, England won the second test by just two runs in Birmingham in one
of the most thrilling games of cricket that was ever seen.
The captains
took their turn to control proceedings at Old Trafford a few days later. Michael Vaughan became the first player in
the series to hit a century, before Ricky Ponting defied England’s strong bowling
attack of Andrew Flintoff, Steve Harmison, Matthew Hoggard and Ashley Giles on
the final day to ensure the series remained at 1-1.
At Trent
Bridge, England dominated, but almost threw the match away with some sloppy
shots, and tremendous bowling from Warne and Lee. Chasing 127 to win, it was the eighth wicket
partnership from Giles and Hoggard that got the home side home by three wickets
to take a 2-1 series lead.
So it came to
The Oval, where England only needed to avoid defeat to regain the Ashes. Australia had to win and showed early intent,
reducing England to a below-par 373, before Matthew Hayden and Justin Langer
started eroding the advantage significantly.
Flintoff, who had an unbelievable series, tore through the Australian
middle order on the Sunday morning to leave England six runs ahead.
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| Michael Vaughan lifts the urn aloft after England's 2005 triumph |
Then, on 57-3
on the final day, Kevin Pietersen survived two dropped catches and a couple of
run out calls to hit a maiden test century, and take the game away from
Australia. The match was drawn and
England could celebrate. There were scenes (pictured) that hadn’t been seen since the dramatic home series of 1981, but were repeated
four years later with victory in the 2009 series.
England start
as overwhelming favourites to win the Ashes again this summer. The first test starts tomorrow at Trent
Bridge in Nottinghamshire.
Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula One
title on the last corner, 2008
The 2008 FIA
Formula One World Championship was one full of action, intrigue, stunning
drives and some glaring mistakes. It
came down to a final race showdown in Brazil, with Britain’s Lewis Hamilton
holding a seven-point lead over the local lad Felipe Massa.
Hamilton only
needed a fifth place finish in Sao Paulo to become the youngest ever champion
in the sport’s history and was untroubled for much of the day, looking secure
in fourth place behind Massa, Fernando Alonso’s Renault and the second Ferrari
of reigning world champion Kimi Raikkonen.
Then the
rainclouds arrived and with five laps to go, all the top runners had to pit for
intermediate tyres. Toyota made a brave
gamble and kept Timo Glock out on dry tyres, and Hamilton was now in a
vulnerable position as the German slipped past whilst he was being serviced.
With three
laps to go Hamilton allowed the lapped Robert Kubica to pass him, but slid wide
and the Toro Rosso of Sebastian Vettel dived past into fifth place, meaning Hamilton
was now out of the world championship position he needed to be in.
Massa did
everything he needed to do, cruising across the line to take his sixth win of
the season, and for 30 seconds or so, the Brazilian had done it. However, the rain intensified and Glock on
his dry tyres was a sitting target. Into
the final corner, both Vettel and Hamilton passed the limping Toyota, with the
McLaren powering up the hill to become the 2008 Formula One World Champion.
Ferrari didn’t
notice this and started celebrating, but they had got it wrong. It was Hamilton’s ex-girlfriend Nicole
Scherzinger and the McLaren mechanics who had got their calculations
right. Hamilton was champion and in the
most unbelievable manner possible. He
made history on the final corner of a truly remarkable season, all of this on
ITV’s final afternoon of broadcasting the sport after 12 years.
Super Saturday, 2012
There are so
many memories from last summer’s Olympics and we all have our own personal
favourites. Among mine was Sir Chris
Hoy’s sixth gold medal in cycling, Jade Jones winning the Taekwondo and Katie
Taylor taking Ireland’s first gold for 16 years in women’s boxing.
However, none
of that can topple the amazing events on Super Saturday. Not even a predictable Team GB penalty
shootout defeat in football could turn the night into a sour one.
The team had
already won three gold medals in the day, two more in rowing and one in the
Velodrome, but it was the events in the Olympic Stadium that were simply
awe-inspiring.
First,
Jessica Ennis completed her domination of the women’s heptathlon event. Ennis took victory in the final event, the
800m to stamp her authority on the two-day competition. The Sheffield athlete broke her own British heptathlon
record for points, and finished over 300 points clear of her nearest
rival. After the injury pain of missing
out on Beijing in 2008, Ennis had shown to the world that she was the best
all-round athlete.
Moments
later, Greg Rutherford from Bletchley in Milton Keynes leapt 8.31m to extend
his lead in the men’s long jump final.
No-one else got close and after his own injury nightmares of previous
years, Rutherford had pulled off an unexpected but no less deserved gold
medal. He became the first Brit to win
the long jump competition since Lyn Jarvis in Oslo in 1964.
Then, it was
the turn of Mo Farah to take the limelight.
Against a top field of Ethiopian and Kenyan athletes, Farah showed them
up with a brilliant tactical run, before kicking twice on the final lap to pull
clear of the field and win the men’s 10,000m.
The stadium went crazy and Team GB had just won three gold medals in the
space of half an hour. It was undoubtedly
the best night in British athletics history, and quite possibly, the greatest
moment in British sporting history.
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