GB STARS GO GLOBAL IN 2018 AS NEW HEROES ARE BORN
From the fast tracks of Berlin to the tortuous hill climbs of the French Alps, the sub-zero South Korean snow zones to the sunshine of Surfer’s Paradise, success for Great Britain’s sports stars in 2018 proved a truly global affair.
In another year in which the essence of sport has been overshadowed by interminable politicking and ongoing drugs issues, the good news stories supplied a welcome gloss for the dwindling numbers whose faith remains undimmed.
Dina Asher-Smith may have single-handedly saved British athletics with her record-breaking sprint exploits in the European Championships, the girlish excitement in her victory moment surely striking a chord with the country’s hardest-to-reach demographic.
There was another readymade model, too, in Lizzy Yarnold, who bowed out of world skeleton by becoming Britain’s first back-to-back Winter Olympic champion, the star of a superb Games for Great Britain, whose medal tally also included a memorably anarchic bronze for the indefatigable Billy Morgan.
Arguably the feat of the year, though, fell to the Welshman Geraint Thomas, who emulated his more illustrious predecessors Sir Bradley Wiggins and Chris Froome by triumphing at the Tour de France: a hero in his homeland, but happy to remain relatively under the radar elsewhere.
For pure gut-wrenching drama, it was hard to beat the England netball team’s stunning on-the-siren win over Australia, the highlight of a Gold Coast Commonwealth Games which succeeded in celebrating sport for the sake of it.
The ethos of an event in which world record holders share the stage with ageing lawn bowlers from tiny atolls is providing an increasingly invaluable antidote to the thrusting corporatism of a football World Cup.
To be fair, it proved one of the best-organised tournaments in record, as Russia rose to the occasion as hosts, providing an excellent spectacle and countless stunning backdrops to England’s wholly unexpected revival under Gareth Southgate.
If football did not quite come home, it certainly fostered a new kind of optimism as Southgate’s unassuming and approachable manner was mirrored in the attitude of a young team which came so close to its first final appearance since 1966.
There is plenty of cause for optimism ahead, just as there is for the home nations’ rugby union teams aiming towards next summer’s World Cup in Japan, with Ireland especially well-placed to give their coach Joe Schmidt a send-off to remember.
Alastair Cook could hardly have chosen a better way to sign off from his illustrious international cricket career than with a 147 in his final Test against India at The Oval in September.
For Ronnie O’Sullivan, though, there is no sign of stopping.
Having so often threatened to quit snooker, the 43-year-old won a recordbreaking 19th ‘grand slam’ title of his career at the UK Championship and vowed to stick around the top end of the sport for the next decade.
Grand Slams were far from Andy Murray’s mind during 2018 as he continued his slow grind back from injury, so it was especially timely that Kyle Edmund should emerge to ensure British representation amongst the elite in his absence.
Britons continue to dominate the heavyweight boxing scene, Tyson Fury’s redemptive performance against Deontay Wilder only hastening the anticipation for an eventual showdown against Anthony Joshua, whose aura of invincibility - for the moment at least - remains intact.
Francesco Molinari and Tommy Fleetwood were the undoubted stars as Great Britain and Europe easily retained the Ryder Cup in France, while golf also focused its attention on the remarkable return to prominence of Tiger Woods.
From an international perspective, Woods’ comeback win in Atlanta in September was matched only by the exploits of Simone Biles, who returned after 18 months out to send records tumbling at the World Gymnastics Championships in Doha.