By Nick Powell
It’s not always been like this.
Getting to the end of a SPOTY night with relative satisfaction about the
outcome.
In the last 25 years we’ve seen Greg Rusedski, Zara Phillips and Ryan
Giggs leave us absolutely dumbfounded as to how they’ve scooped the award.
Rusedski won it in a year when he had a first round exit in two of the
four grand slams (and didn’t get close to winning the other two), Zara Phillips
seemingly won it for being a royal, and Giggs won it presumably because he got
PFA player of the year (In a season where he started just TWELVE games) and the
fact he was Welsh.
The same could be argued for Thomas, but there’s no question that he
sits comfortably among the list of worthy winners.
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The Main Event
It’s hard to argue with the nominees. In fact, I would go as far as to
say the BBC got it SPOTY on (sorry).
For nearly all of them, they had achieved a first. Dina Ascher-Smith
was the first British athlete to win the 100m/200m double in a European
Championship, Geraint Thomas was the first Welshman to win a Tour de France,
Lewis Hamilton was the first British man to win five Formula 1 world titles
(the next best has three), Jimmy Anderson became the most successful seamer in
history (so the first to take 564 wickets) and Lizzy Yarnold became the first
Brit to defend a Winter Olympic title.
Perhaps the favourite Harry Kane missed out because his incredible
achievements this year have been replicated in the past (the same could be said
as to why Tyson Fury and Anthony Joshua weren’t nominated), though I’m certain
he’ll win it in the future if England continue their current trajectory.
I’d hoped that Jimmy Anderson would take the top prize as his
achievement went beyond all the others. He’d done something that no-one on the
planet, not just the country, had ever achieved. I gave him five votes, with
two for Yarnold and one for Thomas.
Were test cricket still live on free-to-air TV (as every other
nominees achievements were) it might’ve been a different story, but it was just
pleasing to see his outstanding achievements recognised by the panel of
experts, who for once seem to have got their nominations spot on.
___
The Major Prizes
It was a double for England’s netball team who scooped both Team and
Sporting Moment of the year after their sensational Commonwealth games gold
that they achieved against Australia, in Australia.
They thoroughly deserved the team award. The Commonwealth Games represents
the summit of the Netball and against all odds they had pulled off a victory
against one of the most dominant teams in any sport.
Their last second winner was an extraordinary moment, and whilst it
was viewed by a lot fewer than some of the other nominees for that award, it
doesn’t get much better than that.
The idea that Francesco Molinari was the best sportsperson in the
entire World in 2018 is a complete joke, an award he would have won for his
performance in the Ryder Cup. No doubt he had achievements, but he arguably
hadn’t even been the best golfer, let alone international sportsperson, in the
World.
Meanwhile Simone Biles won four World Gymnastics golds, including a
record breaking 4th all-around title despite suffering from a kidney stone and
being in hospital the day before the meeting began. She also had to come
forward about horrendous sexual abuse she suffered at USA gymnastics, and still
managed a clean sweep in their National Championships. Maybe the BBC should
‘take back control’ of the awarding of this one.
And then there’s Billie Jean King, who seemed to win Lifetime
Achievement because a film came out about her. Year on year this award
continues to have no rhyme or reason, alternating between Brits who have just
retired and global sporting legends. If it really is awarded to a person “who
has made a major impact on the world of sport during their lifetime", then
she’s a worthy winner, but don’t bet against a recently reited Brit who’s done
nothing beyond their sport scooping it next year.
____
The Other Awards
The Helen Rollason Award, given out “for outstanding achievement in
the face of adversity", went to Billy Monger.
Billy Monger poses with Billie Jean King as they celebrate winning their awards
Monger, 19, had both his legs amputated following a crash during a
Formula 4 race at Donington Park in April 2017. He returned to racing in March
2018 - less than a year after the accident - at the British Formula 3
Championship, and came sixth overall in the 2018 season including a Pole
Position.
His speech was long, as it should have been, so to see the BBC cut him
off, when Billie Jean King seemed to be allowed to speak for about three days,
was outrageous.
Fortunately they allowed him more words later on, and it was great to
see a really important award given to someone who we all hope can hit the
heights that Lewis Hamilton, the man who presented him with the award, could
reach.
Another athlete and deserving victor with great potential was Young
Sport’s Personality winner Kare Adenegan, the 17 year old wheelchair racer who
became T34 100m WPA European champion and 100m world record holder.
And it was great to see Gareth Southgate, doing something no other
England manager in the last 28 years has done, with a team that was far weaker
than many of his predecessors’, recognised with the Coach of the Year.
Southgate was not expected to get England into a World Cup Semi-Final
Finally, the unsung hero award had a somewhat strange outcome too.
Whilst the story of Kirsty Ewen’s recovery and encouragement after mental
health issues was inspiring, for someone only 28 who has not been volunteering
for long to win an award that, I believed, was about outstanding unrecognised
commitment was strange.
People in their 70s who have changed the face of a local community and
committed everything to it surely deserve the award more, it just seems as if
this is another award losing a little bit of clarity as to what it’s for.
____
The Assessment
As already mentioned, given the BBC’s track record, this has been a
very good year. Despite some criticism more than half the awards were given to
Women’s Sport, we saw a worthy winner of the main award and some inspirational
stories all around.
It could be argued some awards have changed in what they’re being
given out for, and there are a few I’d have awarded to others, but generally
the right choices have been made.
It will be interesting to see who snaps it up in 2019: A new
undisputed heavyweight Champion? A World Cup winning cricketer or rugby player?
A World Athletics star? Or will cycling and tennis, who have won seven of the
last eleven prizes, reign supreme again?
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