Sunday, November 30, 2008

The Top 8 most unbelievably exciting sporting moments in 2008!!!

What a year for sports 2008 has been.  There have been millions of sports events around the world from the cow fighting in Switzerland to the sumo wrestling in Japan, from the elephant polo of Nepal to the razzle dazzle of the English premier league soccer.  These events have been attended by the faithful who have poured through the turnstiles and gateways to stand or sit in the scalding heat or bitter cold to witness these moments of history.  However there can only be 8 exciting moments in the top 8 of 2008 and here they are.



NUMBER 8  -  Zarkava wins the Arc de Triomphe

Although this filly was the favourite, and the race went as planned, it is extremely unusual event for a filly to win a major race.  Set in the heart of Paris, the Arc de Triomphe is one of the worlds most glamarous races and also one of the hardest to win.  Perhaps she will be back next year to see if she can reclaim the title



NUMBER 7 - Usain Bolt winning the 200m at the Beijing Olympics

The Jamaican athlete did the unthinkable by beating Michael Johnson's world record.  This was probably one of the most one sided finals that the Olympic games have ever seen, but the excitement was as to whether he could beat the world record that many experts thought was unbeatable.  A close thing it was, only scraping inside the time by 3/100 of a second.  By winning three gold medals in three world records Usain Bolt made history, but the 200m has to go down as his greatest achievement of the games as he took off on a solo mission with the clock as his only competitor.  Now do we think that anyone will ever be able to beat the women's 100m record?



NUMBER 6 - The New York Giants winning the 42nd Superbowl in the final minute

With 35 seconds left to go, Eli Manning threw a fade to Plaxico Burress to end the Patriots unbeaten season and win the Superbowl.  The match was mainly a defensive affair with the Patriots in control.  The final drive led by Manning will live on in history.



NUMBER 5 - Rafa Nadal finally ends Roger Federer's winning streak at Wimbledon

In what was probably a display of the highest quality tennis that has ever been played, Nadal did the unthinkable and beat Federer in London's famous SW18 arena.  The 22 year-old Spanish player battled the weather as well as probably the greatest player to ever hold a tennis racket.  In a monumental struggle he finally came good winning 9-7 in the 5th set.  The match will rival the Bjorg/McEnroe version as the greatest grandslam final ever played.



NUMBER 4 - The US win the 4x100 freestyle Olympic swimming final

Michael Phelps achieved something that will probably never be repeated.  8 gold medals in 1 olympics was a mixture of good fortune, 16,000 daily food calories, great team work and an extraordinary amount of talent.  Winning the 100m butterfly by less that 1/100 of a second was pretty exciting, but the 4x100 freestyle has to go down as the most exciting of all his golds, and ironically he only played a small role on the victory.  It was his team mate Jason Lezak who swam 0.9s faster than world record holder Alain Bernard in the final 50m to somehow win the gold.  He performed this remarkable feat by swimming in the wake of the Frenchman who had been jive talking before the race.  Phelps owes much to this remarkable performance that defied all logic.



NUMBER 3 - Tiger Woods wins the US Open

With relative unknown Rocco Mediate poised to win the Open, Tiger Woods had one last chance on the 18th to send the US Open into a playoff.  He duly obliged by quite unbelievably sinking a 12 ft putt that just edged into the hole.  The next day, Tiger won the event in the playoff.  What made this even more remarkable was that Tiger Woods was playing with a torn ligament in his left knee, he described it as his 'greatest ever championship', this coming from a man who has 14.



NUMBER 2 - Manchester United win the Champions League Final on Penalties

With the 120 minutes of normal and extra time being unable to separate these two rivals.  Captain John Terry had the chance to win the Champions league for Chelsea on penalties.  Up he stepped, and as he was about kick the ball he slipped.  The ball hit the outside edge of the post and Manchester United went on to win the cup.   The tears that followed reflected just how close Chelsea had been - a matter of inches.  Surely with Roman Abramovic's millions, it is only a matter of time before they will win the Cup for the first time in their history.



NUMBER 1 - Lewis Hamilton wins the Formula 1 world championship in Brazil

It was hard to even understand how it happened.  Hamilton needed to finish 5th to win the world championship, with 5 laps he came in to change tyres thinking that it would rain.  He dropped a place and when he was overtaken by Vettel he found himself in 6th with 2 laps to go.  Try as he might he was unable to overtake Vettel.  The rain finally started to fall and as they approached the final turn of the whole season - they finally caught Timo Glock, the driver who hadn't changed his tyres and whom everyone had forgotten about.  The crowd went wild thinking that their countryman Massa was world champion.  Massa father was shedding tears of joy, Hamiltons team was also celebrating - including his Pussycat Dolls singer girlfriend.  Through the mellee it was established that the youngest ever, and first black driver was the World champion.  For a sport that most people fail to find exciting, this was serious drama, and why it wins for 2008's most exciting sporting moment.

Agree or disagree?  What your opinion on the matter?

2 comments:

Rebecca said...

You left out Tamarillo's win at Burghley - shame on you!!!

Anonymous said...

I think leaving out Argentina's gold medal soccer performance and the hiring of Diego Maradona as the national team coach is somewhat of a farce.