Moments to savour and when sport is the loser
THE good ideas department at the BBC couldn’t help themselves – they simply had to conjure up another new category for the Sports Personality of the Year show. As it happens, this one ain’t bad. They want you to vote for the ‘Greatest Sporting Moment’ of 2018, with five contenders to choose from.
My favourite is among those, a memory for the ages when cricketer Alastair Cook scored a century on his Test match farewell to emotional rapture from the crowd at The Oval.
The Greatest? We talk about that all the time in sport, but looking back on the events of a sporting year I reckon it’s more pertinent to consider the Most Significant Moments – the ones that illuminated for better or worse the games we love to watch.
Here, very much in order, are my top 12 of 2018.
The meltdown of tennis legend Serena Williams in the US Open final against 20-year-old winner Naomi Osaka provoked intense debate that moved beyond the boundaries of sport. Serena claimed she was fighting for “women’s rights, women’s equality and all kinds of stuff ” as she ranted at the umpire; but what about respect for her young opponent playing in a debut Grand Slam final? Sport cannot be played fairly unless competitors observe decent standards of behaviour. The world marathon record was smashed by Eliud Kipchoge when he ran the distance in two hours, one minute and 39 seconds in September. His performance at the Berlin Marathon was more than a minute faster than the previous best time and surely heralds the most magical athletic event of our age – the breaking of the two-hour barrier. It would be the equivalent of Sir
Roger Bannister beating the fourminute mile.
Modern sport is an endless fight against cheating, and a big blow was landed when Australia’s cricket captain Steve Smith and vice-captain David Warner were banned for a year for their disgraceful part in a ball-tampering episode that scandalised their nation. The moment when Cameron Bancroft was caught by TV cameras using sandpaper to scuff the ball in a Test against South Africa shone a searing light on the how Australian cricket had lost its sense of right and wrong.
Cheats still prosper, and the moment which left the heaviest heart of the year came in the Champions League final when Real Madrid defender Sergio Ramos hauled opponent Mohamed Salah to the ground, wrenching the Liverpool talisman’s shoulder so badly he had to be substituted. Later in the game Ramos also slyly elbowed goalkeeper Loris Karius, leaving him disorientated at a crucial moment as Madrid won the match. Cynics will have you believe that Ramos is a clever footballer. They are wrong.
The World Cup was a wonderful resurrection of spirit for the England football team, managed with understated intelligence by Gareth Southgate, and the moment which symbolised it was Jordan Pickford’s superb save in the penalty shoot-out against Colombia in a tense second round match. So many demons were laid to rest by the goalkeeper’s brilliance. His courage to perform on the big stage was a mighty example. Perfect send-offs in sport are impossible – well, almost. Alastair Cook enjoyed that rare distinction by scoring a century in the final Test match innings of his monumental career as England’s most prolific all-time batsman. The Oval crowd responded with cascades of heartfelt emotion towards Cook, recognition not only of his class as a player but also his steadfast and honourable character. It was unforgettable. Redemption is a powerful storyline in sport, and few have matched the improbably comeback victory of Tiger Woods at the age of 42 in the Tour Championship. His body had been wrecked by injury and his reputation battered by self-inflicted scandal, but there was an incredible outpouring of joy when Tiger strode down the 18th fairway at Atlanta in his trademark red shirt to savour the taste of triumph again.
A curse of 21st-century sport was highlighted in the moment when a TMO decision scrubbed out the dazzling late try by Sam Underhill that should have given England a rare and merited victory against the All Blacks. It illustrated the two grievous problems with video-replay officiating. One is that you are still not sure to have a correct ruling; top rugby referees disagreed about this incident for days afterwards. Secondly, and much more importantly, TMO or VAR or
DRS destroys the emotion of the moment, which is the greatest thrill of watching live sport.
Gareth Bale’s spectacular bicycle-kick goal for Real
Madrid in the Champions League final was the counterpoint in the same match to the cheating of Sergio Ramos. It was the take-your-breathaway wow moment of the year from the most under-appreciated British superstar of sport. Did that really happen? Yes, it did. Wow.
The quiet team man, the unsung hero of cycling, pedalled out of the shadows in high summer on the most iconic mountain finish to make imperishable history. The moment when Geraint Thomas became the first Briton to win at Alpe d’Huez proved beyond any doubt he could become the Tour de France champion ahead of four-time winner and team-mate Chris Froome. The Yellow Jersey stayed on in Paris.
The Commonwealth Games may be an anachronism these days but nobody cared too much when England’s netball team beat Australia in the final second of the gold medal match to capture an unlikely glory against the perennial champions. It sparked scenes of pure jubilation and was a thrilling reminder of how so-called minority sports can entrance the wider public.
When the BBC announced their greatest sporting moment contenders last week there were only four on the list. A few hours later a fifth had been added, the final round of Tyson Fury’s world heavyweight title contest against Deontay Wilder. Sure, the drama was relished by many watching, but that’s no reason to celebrate what occurred. In a civilised modern era when, finally, the dangers of head injuries are being recognised in so many sports from rugby to football to skiing, why should we applaud the sight of a man getting up from a second fearsomely heavy knock-down blow to battle on?
Those are the moments of most risk of long-term consequences for sports competitors. Welfare matters – and how can the decision to allow the fight to continue be made by a referee rather than a qualified doctor? On the same night as Fury was displaying his immense courage, Canadian boxer Adonis Stevenson, who had been the longest-reigning world champion, ended a bout in hospital having suffered what doctors said was “a severe, traumatic brain injury”. He remains in intensive care a week later.