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| 2012 Sport's Personality of the Year, Bradley Wiggins, with runner up Jessica Ennis |
I mentioned a
couple of years ago the issue’s surrounding the voting procedures, with august
sporting publications Zoo & Nut’s being given a vote, while only one of
Scotland’s national newspapers had a vote.
While the BBC have changed those rules, it’s interesting to note that
the representatives from the print world are still based in London rather than divvied
between London, Cardiff, Belfast & Glasgow/Edinburgh. That’s probably not going to be noticed much
this year, given the identity of the huge favourite. That’s not to say this won’t be an issue in
the future.
For all the years
that I’ve been doing this blog, Sport’s Personality has never really had an
outstanding favourite. Going back, the
last dead cert to win would have been Andrew Flintoff in 2005 (even though that
Ashes series was more of a team collective than Botham’s Ashes of 1981, it’s
just that Flintoff was involved in most of the key moments). This year though, there’s only really going
to be one winner. Yet since July, Andy
Murray hasn’t really been at the top of his game. His defence of his US Open championships fell
at the quarter final stages at the hands of Stanislas Wawrinka before
succumbing to a back injury, as Rafa Nadal staged a remarkable comeback.
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| That moment... |
At the start of
the year though, Djokavic and Murray were the new Nadal and Federer. Djokavic gained revenge over Murray for his
US Open defeat by winning his third straight Australian Open. Murray, revitalised after missing Roland
Garros sailed through in the grass in South London. However, he made heavy weather of a quarter
final against Verdasco, going two sets down before winning the next three. He also made heavy weather of the semi final
against Janowicz, losing the first set before coming through in four sets. However Djokavic had come through a titanic
match against Del Potro that broke the record for the longest Wimbledon semi
final (Becker V Lendl’s four hour and 1 minute epic in 1989 was the previous
longest semi, Djokovic won in 4 Hours and 44 minutes). Djokovic was still slight favourite to regain
the title he won in 2011.
Remarkiably
though Murray won, essentially by out Djokovicing Djokavic. His win (above) ended 36 years wait for a British
single’s win, 77 since a Brit won the men’s singles championship and 113 years
since a Scot won the men’s singles championship. So we might as well wrap up the trophy now
and post it off to Miami, right?
Well… with this being a public vote, we can’t
really be certain. Remember there are
years where the winner is greeted with a collective “What?!?”. AP McCoy’s win in 2010 can best be described
as Left field, while, Ryan Giggs, Zara Phillips and Steve Davis are other, er,
strange winners. Mansell won it again in 1992 when he eventually won the
F1 drivers championship, when one of our Olympic champions (Christie, Gunnell
or Jackson) would have been more apt (Come to think of it, Robin Cousins beat
both Alan Wells and Daley Thompson in 1980…
WTF???). While David Beckham’s Sport’s Personality win
came off the back of a man of the match performance in a key World Cup qualifier against Greece. So who represent’s Murray’s biggest obstacle
to becoming, in the year of the referendum, the first Scot to win since Chris
Hoy all of five years ago. Who is the
stop Muzza candidate?
The favourite for
that position is probably Mo Farrah.
Nominated last year for his 5,000m and 10,000 double at the Olympics,
this year he repeated that feat in the World Championships in Moscow (retaining
the 5,000 crown that he had won in Daegu two years ago). You do wonder sometimes what Farah has to do
to win this award. Prehaps knobble
Murray and British Cycling.
With Cycling at
an all time high in the British sporting consciousness, it seems strange to
think that Chris Froome (right, in yellow - obviously) might not be following Wiggins and Cavendish in winning
this award. The 100th jaunt around
France known as the Tour De France was a tougher edition than last year, with a
climb up Ventoux as well as a double jaunt up Alpe d’huez. Froome, given the leadership of team Sky
after Wiggins injury during the Giro d’Italia, destroyed his rivals in the
mountains, taking yellow at Ax 3 Domaines and winning an iconic stage win at
Mont Ventoux. Even almost crashing into
his biggest rival, the returning Alberto Contador, on the descent into Gap
could not halt his march to the Yellow Jersey.
Those three are
the favourites to finish in the top three.
Of the others, Maybe Justin Rose who became the first Englishman to win
the US Open since Jacklyn in 1971 in June, or Leigh Halfpenny – who starred as
Wales retained their 6 Nations championships and also played a part in the
Lions series win in Australia – their first series win since beating South
Africa in 1997 – could break into the top three.
Froom, Farah or
Rose will finish in the top three behind Murray come Sunday. If there is a shock, I think that it will be
Farah. It will be a shock though, I can’t
conceive that the first British winner of the Mens singles title at Wimbledon
in 77 years won’t be crowned Sports Personality of The Year come Sunday.
Now, Auntie,
about that idea for Sports Villain of the year…
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