Best 8 for 08 – Sport

Well again I have rounded up the best in 2008 in sport. I had forgotten that there were quite a few special events this year, so I have also included a ‘Memorable Moments’ section below for those which didn’t quite make the cut but still should be mentioned. After trawling through a number of sites to determine the consensus, I might have paraphrased some of the info here and so my apologies for lack of referencing.

Let us recap the year that was in sport:

8 ) Indy driver Danica Patrick won the Indy Japan 300, becoming the first female to win an IndyCar race.

7) The Rugby League World Cup tournament culminates in New Zealand’s 34 – 20 win against Australia in the final at Suncorp Stadium before 50,599 spectators. This is the first win for New Zealand and is a major upset for the favourites Australia who have held onto the title for 33 years straight.

6) The Boston Celtics won their 17th NBA Championship by defeating the Los Angeles Lakers in six games in the NBA Finals in what is the biggest rivalry in basketball. Paul Pierce was named Finals MVP. Worthy of a mention is Game 4, where the Celtics came from behind 24 points to beat the Lakers, the biggest comeback in Finals history.

5) Tiger Woods beats Rocco Mediate to win the U.S. Open. Woods originally was behind the leaders but faught his way back to the top and tied even par by the end of regulation. It then went down to an 18 hole playoff, which then continued to sudden death. This was Tiger Woods 65th PGA Tour win for his career and the 14th major championship of his career. Two days after winning The Open, Woods announced that he had been playing for at least 10 months with a torn ligament in his left knee and that he sustained a stress fraction in his left leg after the Masters.

4) The New York Giants upset the heavily favoured and previously unbeaten New England Patriots 17-14 in Super Bowl XLII, held in Glendale, Arizona at the University of Phoenix Stadium. Quarterback Eli Manning is awarded the Super Bowl MVP.

3) Lewis Hamilton, the first black driver in Formula 1 history, entered the final race with a comfortable seven point advantage over Brazil’s Felipe Massa. So even if Massa happened to win the São Paulo race, Hamilton would just have to finish fifth or better to clinch the championship. Massa led throughout, but Hamilton hung back comfortably in fifth, playing it safe. Then, with just five laps to go, it started raining, causing Hamilton and the other leaders to take a pit stop to get wet tires. Germany’s Timo Glock went for broke and did not pit, moving into fourth with two laps left, leaving Hamilton in sixth and out of title contention. But on the last lap, the Hamilton caught Glock at the final corner to finish fifth and claim the championship.

2) The Wimbledon final where Spain’s Rafael Nadal upset his arch rival, five-time defending tournament champ Roger Federer, in a five-set epic, 6-4, 6-4, 6-7 (5), 6-7 (8), 9-7. The match, which took 4 hours and 48 minutes to complete, featured three rain delays, a Federer comeback from two sets down, and an awe-inspiring fifth set that ended with two exhausted champions duelling in the dark (it ended at 9:16 p.m; fittingly this was the last year there were no lights on Centre Court). It was simultaneously gruelling, nerve-wracking and beautiful tennis, as Federer struck a 127 mph service winner to save the match in the fourth set tiebreaker, and Nadal chased down shot after impossible shot. When Federer hit his last shot into the net, a victorious Nadal fell flat on his back, as cameras flashed all around to get a snapshot of history. A few weeks later, Nadal replaced Federer as the top-ranked player in the world.

1) Of course the biggest event would have to go to the Olympic Games held in Beijing, China. The stand outs were:
Usain Bolt as he literally strolled over the line in the men’s 100m event while breaking the world record.
Stephanie Rice as she cleaned up in the pool for Australia by winning 3 gold medals.
Michael Phelps. 8 Gold Medals. 7 World Records. The fastest man in water. Period.

Memorable Moments

The Australian Open where Lleyton Hewitt beat Marcos Baghdatis of Cyprus in the 3rd round qualifier in a marathon 5-set match which took almost 5 hours. The match ended at 4:33am local time after the match was delayed until just before midnight, making it the latest ever finish for an Australian Open match.

Spain wins the 2008 European Championships after 44 years. In the 33rd minute of the final against tournament favourite Germany, Spain’s Fernando Torres, who stars professionally for Liverpool in the English Premier League, jetted past a Germany defender and lifted the ball over sliding goaltender Jens Lehmann to give Spain a 1-0 lead, its first Euro title since 1964.

The 2008 NRL season culminates in the Manly-Warringah Sea Eagles record-breaking 40 – 0 win against the Melbourne Storm in the grand final at ANZ Stadium before 80,388 spectators. Also, rugby league enters its 100th year in Australia and the team of the century is announced. On a sour note, Sonny Bill Williams abandons the sport, once again raising questions about the issue of elite players leaving the game.

The Hawthorn Hawks beat the Geelong Cats 115-89 in the AFL Grand Final at the MCG in front of a crowd of 100,012. The Cats only lost 1 game all season and were raging favourites to win, but couldn’t get by the Hawks in the biggest game of the season.