By Simon Wright – Follow
me on Twitter @Siwri88
It was always
going to be tough to topple the memorable sporting year of 2012 but 2013
certainly was a brilliant cameo to last year’s events. The Brits finally had a
Wimbledon winner, continue to reign on two wheels in Paris and a distance god
made his success into world domination. There was also the retirement of
football’s greatest manager, a won and lost Ashes series, Lions roar to glory
Down Under and an invincible German take Formula One by storm. It is fair to
say that there were many highlights over the past calendar year.
There is only
one place where this review can start and that is to lookback on a remarkable
year of tennis. In the women’s game, Serena Williams almost swept the board.
The American won the French and US Open, the WTA Championships in Istanbul and
regained her number one world ranking. Her Wimbledon defence ended though in
the last 16, beaten by Sabine Lisicki of Germany. Lisicki made it to the final
but crumbled on the main stage, allowing Frenchman Marion Bartoli – often the
bridesmaid to finally become the bride. A straight sets victory for Bartoli saw
her claim the only Grand Slam title of her career. A sudden retirement followed
in August due to injury but no-one can take away the rose bowl dish won at
SW19. Victoria Azarenka won the Australian Open and it was good year for Laura
Robson as she made the second week at Wimbledon. Fellow Brit Heather Watson
struggled with illness for the majority of the year whilst retirement beckoned
for Anne Keothavong and Elena Baltacha. With Roger Federer enduring his worst
season in 11 years – failing to reach any of the semi-finals at the Grand Slam
events and claiming only one ATP win all season, the main honours were divided
between three men. Serbian Novak Djokovic started the year in brilliant
fashion, beating Andy Murray in four sets to win again in Melbourne.
Despite a shock first round elimination in south west London, Rafael Nadal
returned from career threatening injury to win the US Open and triumph for an
eighth time at Roland Garros. That leads us to the unforgettable day on Sunday,
7 July 2013.
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| Andy Murray ended the long British drought of 77 years at Wimbledon |
Injury meant
Murray missed the French Open and his draw looked tough too, until all of his
potential opponents were wiped out on ‘Holby City Wednesday’ on the opening
week. Buoyant from his victory at Queens Club, Murray (pictured) made it to the final
despite a huge scare in the quarter-finals against Fernando Verdasco. He would
play Djokovic after his own five-hour epic with Juan Martin del Potro of
Argentina. The final which should have been a tense affair turned into a classy
performance from the Brit. Murray won all the crucial points and it was Djokovic
who made the mistakes when put under pressure. In searing heat and at 5.25pm on
Centre Court, Djokovic found the net and that was that. The longest drought in
British sport was over – we had a Wimbledon Men’s Singles Champion and that was
Andy Murray after 77 years of hurt. It was an emphatic performance and
guaranteed him BBC Sports Personality of the Year in December.
Rugby Union
had a powerful 12 months of competitive action. Leicester Tigers defeated
Northampton Saints in a bad tempered Aviva Premiership final whilst Toulon were
crowned Heineken Cup winners, inspired by Jonny Wilkinson in the final. On the
international scene, New Zealand went through an entire calendar year
undefeated which included autumn international victories at Twickenham and
Dublin. In the RBS Six Nations, there was a final weekend showdown for the
championship as Wales met England. An English victory would secure their first
Grand Slam in a decade. However it was the Welsh who prevailed with a record
win over their opponents 30-3. Leigh Halfpenny was top points scorer in the
championship with 74 points. France meanwhile ended up with the wooden spoon.
Then it was onto the summer’s big contest in Australia as the British and Irish
Lions aimed to win their first overseas series since 1997. It was 1-1 after two
very close games with the Lions snatching the first test 23-21 in Brisbane but
losing the second 16-15 in Melbourne. It went down to the finale in Sydney and
the Lions played the Aussies off the park, routing them 41-16 to win the series
2-1. It was their first series win in Australia in 24 years. Halfpenny was the
star again, scoring 49 points over the three tests.
Sailing is
not the most popular sport but it produced an incredible story and one of sport’s
greatest comebacks in September. The year started sadly when Team GB medallist in
Beijing and London, Andrew Simpson died in May when the yacht he was on
training for the Americas Cup capsized. The final between Emirates Team New
Zealand and Team Oracle USA was a tale of two halves. New Zealand stormed into
an 8-1 lead and looked like they were going to be convincing winners. They hadn’t
counted on the greatest Olympic sailor in history on the other side. Sir Ben Ainslie
led a monumental fightback to turn the momentum USA’s way. In San Francisco for
the final race, the comeback was complete. The US won 9-8 to win sport’s oldest
trophy. Ainslie was hailed as the master again and talks are underway for a
Team GB entry into the race in future years to come.
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| Chris Froome continued Britain's success in the Tour de France |
The cycling
year didn’t start well when one of sport’s believed to be heroes confessed all.
Lance Armstrong admitted to doping on a regular basis when he stormed to his
seven Tour de France wins from 1999 to 2005. The sporting world was rocked and
cycling left to fight more bad headlines of drug use in competition. Armstrong
has rightfully been stripped of his titles and now goes down as one of the biggest cheats in sporting history. None of that bothered Chris Froome (pictured) though on the 100th
anniversary of the Tour de France. After bronze at last year’s Olympic time
trial and finishing runner-up on the 2012 tour to Sir Bradley Wiggins, Froome
went one better in 2013. He dismantled the competition to claim the yellow
jersey on the eighth stage and won the prestigious race for Team Sky. After
waiting a lifetime, Britain now has two tour winners in two years, as Froome was
flanked home by his team-mates on the Champ Elysees. Wiggins missed the tour
due to injury but completed a successful year for our country with victory in
September’s Tour of Britain. On the track, there were nine medals for Great
Britain at the World Track Cycling Championship in Minsk in February. Becky
James was the star with four medals in her first championships – two of them
were gold. Laura Trott was beaten in the Omnium by Sarah Hammer of the United
States but retained her Team Pursuit title and was the inaugural winner of Ride
London this summer too.
Another sport
to suffer the old story of drug scandals was athletics. American sprinter Tyson
Gay, Jamaica’s Asafa Powell and Kelly-Ann Baptiste from Trinidad & Tobago
were among the big names to fail tests. All face two-year bans. It was a
successful year for British sprinting with James Dasaolu breaking the magical
10-second barrier at the British Championships in Birmingham, whilst both he
and Adam Gemili made major sprinting finals later in the year. The Sainsbury’s
Anniversary Games in the Olympic Stadium were a huge success before the best in
the business headed off to Moscow for the IAAF World Athletics Championships in
August. From a British perspective, the year belonged to Mo Farah. He repeated
his Olympic double at long distance in the Russian capital. He won both the
5000m and 10,000m in tight finishes, something he couldn’t quite achieve in
Daegu two years ago. In the women’s 400m, Christine Ohuruogu produced another
great finish to steal the gold medal from chief rival Amelie Montsho to win her
second world championship gold. In the process, she grabbed Kathy Cooke’s
long-standing national record. There was also a brilliant bronze medal in the
women’s 110m hurdles for Tiffany Porter. Usain Bolt wasn’t quite at his
fearsome best but he still won three gold medals, matched by Jamaican team-mate
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. The Russians were delighted when home favourite Yelena
Isinbayeva won a dramatic pole vault final, helping Russia top the medals table
and there were other outstanding world performances from the likes of Valerie Adams
(New Zealand) and Teddy Tamgho (France). Sadly, the drug abuse from some of the
world’s most recognised track stars tainted the track and field year.
Cricket’s
oldest rivalry was renewed not once but twice as England and Australia clashed
in the Ashes. The summer belonged to England as they retained the urn 3-0 in a
series which was overshadowed by failings in technology such as Hotspot.
England won the first test by a dramatic 14 runs in Trent Bridge before
crushing the Aussies by a staggering 347 runs at Lord’s. The Ashes were
retained after rain brought an end to an Australian fightback in Manchester
before victory at Chester-Le-Street rubbed salt into the wounds of the
tourists. Only the darkness at The Oval prevented an even heavier beating for
Australia. Ian Bell was the man of the series with three centuries scored and
562 runs achieved as he finally came of age. Unfortunately for England, their
winter tour Down Under has been nothing but a complete shambles. The Ashes have
been already been lost to Australia and with two to play, England stare down
the barrel of a 5-0 annihilation like in 2007. Jonathan Trott left the tour
after one test due to stress and Graeme Swann announced his retirement with
immediate effect recently. English cricket is currently in crisis. On the
domestic front, the main honours went to Durham (County Championship) and
Northamptonshire (Twenty20 Cup), whilst one of the best batsmen to play the
game, Sachin Tendulkar of India retired.
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| Jockey AP McCoy celebrates his magical 4000th winner at Towcester |
Horse racing
brought another remarkable story in November. At Towcester, Mountain Dunes took
AP McCoy (pictured) to another historic landmark as he achieved his 4000th
winner. He is the first jump jockey to achieve this and is now champion jockey
18 times. He now has 4029 winners (as of last week) and all this was achieved
after being injured for the first month of this year. The favourite Bob’s Worth
won the Cheltenham Gold Cup in March as trainer Nicky Henderson and jockey
Barry Geraghty combined to leave the Paul Nicholls/Ruby Walsh combination
trailing in their wake. Ruler of the World won the Epsom Derby and outsider
Auras Encore took the honours in the Grand National, as all 40 horses that
started made it back safely at Aintree this time around.
There was
British success on two wheels as Tom Sykes became World Superbike champion and
Tai Woffenden became Britain’s first world Speedway Grand Prix champion in 13
years. In MotoGP, there was a new rookie sensation who took the paddock by
storm. Spaniard Marc Marquez became the first newcomer since Kenny Roberts Jr
in 1978 to win the championship at his first attempt. A run of four successive
victories in mid-season was the turning point and he finished third in a tense
season finale in Valencia to hold off a determined challenge from Jorge
Lorenzo. ‘The Doctor’ returned to the top step of the rostrum as Valentino
Rossi won the Dutch TT at Assen – his first win in almost three years. Britain’s
Cal Crutchlow scored two pole positions and three podiums in another impressive
year, earning himself a works ride for next season with Ducati.
On four
wheels, Allan McNish became the endurance sportscar champion and won at Le Mans
again before bowing out into retirement. Fellow Scot Dario Franchitti was
forced to give up IndyCar racing after sustaining career-ending injuries in a
terrible crash at an event in Houston. Scott Dixon won the championship, while
Brazilian Tony Kanaan was the winner of the Indy 500. Andrew Jordan won the
British Touring Car Championship, holding off late challenges from Jason Plato
and Gordon Shedden to win his maiden title. In Formula One, only one man
dominated the season. Sebastian Vettel broke records for fun as he claimed his
fourth consecutive world championship. The unstoppable German won 13 races to
equal Michael Schumacher’s mark from 2004 and matched Alberto Ascari’s
long-standing achievement of nine consecutive victories, the first to do it in
a season. He is unbeaten since July. Red Bull team-mate Mark Webber retired and
moves into sportscars next season with Porsche while six Pirelli tyre blowouts
turned the British Grand Prix at Silverstone into a joke. It was sparse success
for British drivers. Lewis Hamilton disappointed many in his first campaign
with Mercedes but did win the Hungarian Grand Prix again. Jenson Button and
McLaren didn’t even score a single podium in 2013 and Paul di Resta’s lack of
consistency means his career in the sport is also over.
There were
happier British experiences in the world of golf. At the US Open, there was
major success at long last for Justin Rose. On Father’s Day, he held off a late
surge from Phil Mickelson to become the first English major winner since Nick
Faldo back in 1996. Tiger Woods might have missed out on the main prizes but
did regain his number one status. Mickelson made up for his US Open
disappointment with a brilliant final day to win The Open Championship. Jason
Dufner edged out Jim Furyk to take the honours in the USPGA Championship whilst
Adam Scott landed the prestigious green jacket at the US Masters in Augusta. It
was a troubled year for Rory McIlroy who lost form and slipped to number six
in the world rankings. Elsewhere, Europe’s Ladies team won their first ever
Solheim Cup in the States, thrashing the home side 18-10.
In football,
the greatest football manager of his generation retired. Sir Alex Ferguson left
on a high and went out on top as Manchester United cruised to a 13th
Premier League title. There were new winners in a dramatic year. Liverpool
Ladies became WSL champions; Swansea City defeated Bradford City to claim their
first major silverware in the League Cup final and Ben Watson’s injury time
header won the FA Cup for Wigan Athletic against Manchester City. Rafa
Benitez
guided Chelsea to more European success as they beat Benfica in Amsterdam to
win the UEFA Europa League (team pictured). A few days earlier, Frank Lampard had become the
club’s all-time record goalscorer. Benitez moved to Napoli and he was replaced
by the ‘Happy One’ as Jose Mourinho returned. The all-German UEFA Champions
League final went to Bayern Munich at Wembley. Arjen Robben scored the late
winner to defeat Borussia Dortmund, part of a German treble. Spain won the
European Under-21 championship, Germany the Women’s Euros as both England teams
woefully exited at the group stages. The senior male side though did qualify
for the World Cup finals and Gareth Bale became the most expensive player in
the history of football, joining Real Madrid for £85.3m.
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| There was another European success for Chelsea - this time in the Europa League |
In other
sport, Ellie Simmonds won three gold medals as Team GB claimed 29 gold medals in
World Paralympic Championships in athletics and swimming. There were over 70
medals in total and Hannah Cockroft was a leading star. She followed up her two
London gold medals last summer with double gold in the wheelchair racing T34
category at both 100m and 200m. She also won both races at the Sainsbury’s Anniversary
Games. Phil ‘the Power’ Taylor won a 16th PDC World Darts title at
the start of the year but has already been knocked out this time around, so
will have to wait for number 17. There were big crowds at the Rugby League
World Cup held in the autumn. Hosts England lost in the semi-finals to holders
New Zealand but it was Australia who took the cup back with them to Oz after
seeing off the Kiwis in the final. Wigan Warriors rekindled their glory days of
the 1990s with victory in both the Challenge Cup final and Super League. Oxford
won the University Boat Race and 36,000 competitors took part in the London
Marathon, just six days after the two bombs that killed three in the closing
stages of the Boston Marathon. Carl Froch retained his IBF and WBA Super
Middleweight belts which included a controversial win over George Groves in
November and stars of London 2012, Nicola Adams, Andrew Selby and David Florence
all won world championships in 2013.
As ever,
sport has not disappointed in 2013 and in fact, it was another cracking year.
2014 should be even better with the World Cup finals in Brazil, the
Commonwealth Games coming to Glasgow, Zurich hosting the European Athletics
Championships, another Ryder Cup in this country and the regular editions of Wimbledon,
the Six Nations, a new-look Formula One and England summer cricket tests
against Sri Lanka and India. Let’s face it – we are experiencing a golden
generation of sport so embrace it while we are in the heart of these great
contests and unexpected triumphs.
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