It’s a big shock for mighty Mo
He finally lifts trophy, but Joshua and Lewis don’t make top three
NOBODY was more surprised than Sir Mo Farah. He said he was too busy moving house to attend but, if truth be told, he probably didn’t make the journey from London to Liverpool last night because he never expected to win. Indeed, the BBC Sports Personality
of the Year award had become a source of some frustration for Farah over what he regarded as a failure by the British public to recognise his achievements on the running track.
After winning a fourth Olympic gold medal in Rio last year, he expressed his disappointment. ‘I’ve never been in the top three of Sports Personality,’ he complained. ‘And I won’t be in the top three again. You have just got to accept what it is.’
By last night, one man stood head and shoulders above the rest as favourite. Quite literally as it happens. Dressed in a black turtleneck jumper and matching jacket, boxer Anthony Joshua was expected to win and, unlike four of the 12 nominees, he was here. He would have been deserving of the recognition, too, for the courage he displayed in conquering Wladimir Klitschko at Wembley in April.
But if the athletes voted third and second came as something of a surprise — and few anticipated Jonnie Peacock and Johnny Rea making it on to the podium — there was a collective gasp inside the Echo Arena when Kenny Dalglish read out Mo Farah’s name.
Had Dalglish just become the Warren Beatty of British sport? Or had the public really just decided it was time that a distance runner still damaged by his association with a coach who remains the subject of a doping investigation was recognised for his dominance over 5000m and 10,000m?
Joshua wore the smile of the defeated Oscar nominee but Farah’s new coach was less guarded, with amateur lip readers the nation over convinced Gary Lough had said something like ‘That’s a f ****** joke?’
One has to assume the husband of Paula Radcliffe was referring not to the result but to the technical fault which meant the BBC were unable to get Farah’s thoughts on his victory during the live broadcast.
Farah’s interview earlier in the programme was chaotic enough, with his young son knocking his microphone. But it was nothing compared to the satellite link going down altogether. When Farah eventually reappeared for the media, he conceded that he ‘didn’t see that coming’.
‘To be honest here, I genuinely thought I wasn’t going to win,’ he said. ‘We’ve got amazing sports people in the UK and everyone had been doing so great this year.
‘When you see the list and you put yourself in there, I thought I could make the top three but you don’t think you’re going to win it.
‘London 2012 was the closest I thought I had come to winning Sports Personality of the Year. It means the world to me.’
Some of the voting was perhaps more expected. Chris Froome was too busy fighting to save his reputation to pose much of a threat and Lewis Hamilton has troubles of his own, too.
Peacock’s performances on Strictly helped endear him to the voters, however much he should be admired as a Paralympic sprinting champion.
But Joshua’s failure to make the top three is going to take some explaining. Those who witnessed those gladiatorial encounters between Muhammad Ali and Joe Frazier and Ali and George Foreman ranked Joshua-Klitschko among the greatest heavyweight bouts in history.
And even the lesser experts surely admired the manner in which the 28-year-old fought back from that sixth-round knockdown to stop the mighty Klitschko in the 11th round in front of 90,000 fans at Wembley to clinch the unified heavyweight title of the world.
Joshua, surely, was about to become only the fifth boxer to win SPOTY in its 64-year history. Hell, Henry Cooper won it twice without being world champion.
But this is a public vote and the public spoke — voting not for the fastest fists in the ring but the fastest finisher in distance running. Normally we expect Farah to win. Not last night though. Not when Joshua was here and ready to claim his prize.