Golf
The US PGA was the last major of the year, and it turned out to be a rather strange affair dominated by two players who were mostly unheard of. In the end rookie Keegan Bradley took the title despite being ranked 108th in the world, becoming only the third player in history to win a major at his first attempt. This victory came after he clawed back a 5 shot deficit to draw level with fellow American Jason Dufner, who had led going into the final day. Then in the play-off Bradley held his nerve at the crucial moments, eventually coming out a deserving winner.
The Open (not the British Open, however much our Yankee friends would like to rename it so) was a hugely entertaining tournament with excellent golf and some moving scenes at its conclusion. Darren Clarke finally managed to transfer the form he regularly displays in the Ryder Cup onto the major stage, coming out on top having headed the leaderboard since its second day. This was Clarke’s first major championship win, and having prematurely lost his wife to breast cancer in 2006 it was an appropriately emotional occasion, the 18th green filled with reverence and respect for a stalwart of the golf world.
Cycling
This summer saw the two biggest annual events in cycling: the Tour de France, followed by the World Road Championships in Copenhagen. After experiencing record success on the track in Beijing, the British participants were hoping to reinforce their growing stature on the road with some strong performances. They didn’t disappoint.
Triple-Olympic champion Bradley Wiggins picked himself up from the let down of an early exit from le Tour with a broken collarbone, taking third place in the Tour of Spain, and then went one better by winning silver in the time-trial in Denmark. He was then part of an incredibly professional British road race team which controlled the entire race, allowing ‘the Manx Missile’ Mark Cavendish to storm clear in a bunch sprint at the end and claim the rainbow jersey of the World Champion.
Seeing Cavendish crossing the line first had become a common sight, as he clocked up stage wins 16-20 at the Tour de France in becoming the first Britain to win the green (sprinters) jersey, setting the team up for a strong Olympics.
Football
Premier League – only 6 games in, but it already looks like being a two-horse-race. The Manchester teams may have only established a 3 point lead over Chelsea but it’s the way they have done so which has been so impressive, the volume and quality of the goals has been unstoppable. It became clear that these two were going to be a cut above when on one glorious Saturday in August City crushed Spurs 5-1 and United were at their rampant best against Arsenal (who look like they’re in for a tough season) in a match which ended in an 8-2 humiliation at Old Trafford. There’s no doubt whatsoever that there will be several more twists over the course of the next few months, but I can’t see anyone else being able to compete with these two in the near future.
In more exciting news, the Beach Soccer World Cup – unknown to most but an actual, legitimate FIFA event, was held in a makeshift stadium on a picturesque beach in northern Italy. Seeing as I was present (albeit just for a day) I thought I’d shed some light on this fairly strange but entertainingly acrobatic form of football. The two main things worth talking about were firstly the El Salvador team, who (reputedly) were just a random group of fishermen who had entered as a bit of a joke and made it all the way to the semi finals only to be beaten by a disciplined Russia, the eventual winners. This must have stung slightly as Russia isn’t exactly famed for its beautiful white, sandy beaches.
The other semi final was one which most people would kill to see – Brazil vs Portugal. Sadly, both teams failed to deliver and that Brazilian flair seemed to be lost on their own players as they instead played in an uncharacteristically disciplined, direct and annoyingly effective way. Overall, an interesting sport but one which will definitely not rival the proper beautiful game.
Rowing
Britain achieved a record-breaking 14 medals (including 7 golds) at the World Rowing Championships in Bled, Slovenia. Furthermore, 13 out of the 14 boats which entered the competition have qualified for London 2012, and with coach Jürgen Gröbler sure to shuffle his boats around to maximise medal chances (including moving Oxford alumni Andy Triggs-Hodge and Peter Read away from the seemingly invincible Kiwi pair), the outlook appears very bright indeed.
Tennis
Novak Djokovic rounded off one of the most successful seasons in the history of tennis with the same high intensity, determination and aggression as he roared to his first US Open victory. He has now won 64 matches out of 66 this year giving him an astonishing win ratio of 96.97%. The tournament itself panned out fairly predictably with the Serbian beating Rafael Nadal (as he has done all year) in a fantastic final to secure his 3rd grand slam of the season. He must now surely set his sights on the French Open, the only title missing from his trophy cabinet, and in fact losing to Federer in the semis there earlier this year was one of the only blemishes on his near-perfect run of form.
His only other defeat came in the Davis Cup against Juan Martin del Potro, as Argentina beat Serbia to set up an early-December final against Spain, sure to be a thriller as Rafael Nadal looks to finish a relatively poor season on a high.
Athletics
ith the Olympics at home and just around the corner, the British team were looking for some strong performances at the World Championships in Daegu to give an indication of what to expect next year. The end result was a mixed bag, and will have given head coach Charles van Commenee plenty of food for thought.
Several of our bankers for gold either underperformed or were beaten by truly world class performances, as defending champions Jessica Ennis and Phillips Idowu had to settle for silver. Mo Farah also experienced the peaks and troughs, devastated to lose the 10,000m but then storming back for glory over half that distance, while Dai Greene looked every inch a championship performer in winning the high hurdles. Add to that surprising medals for Hannah England over 1500m and Andy Turner in the high hurdles, and it would appear that, even it won’t be the people you expect, Britain will surely give us something to cheer about next summer.
