ReViewSport2017 — one year of British sport in 12 tweets
2018 is upon us and with a wealth of upcoming sporting events bringing the prospect of more GB gold, Breaking Views’ Jamie Ingrouille (@JaM_Ingrouille) has assembled his personal views on last year’s British sporting highlights.
These are just my personal views, and there are no concrete best performances — which is why I am inviting you to provide your reflections on twitter under the hashtag ‘#ReViS17’!
January is generally a quiet month on the sporting calendar, but this didn’t diminish the level of Sam Sunderland’s achievement in the Dakar Rally 2017 stage race — his seven-minute victory on day five combined with consistent performances throughout were what allowed him to clinch the title. Sunderland’s impressive victory was a notable first for Britain, making it truly one to remember.
Although not a major world championship, this was an impressive race to watch when it was televised, featuring great co-operation between the two British triathletes who overcame international competition to claim a 1–2 in the Triathlon World Cup season opener. It was Lucy Hall who eventually came out top with her first ever World Cup victory, a very respectable achievement.
Elise Christie won triple gold in the World Short Track Speed Skating Championships, taking victories in both the 1000 and 1500 metres and becoming the first European woman ever to win the overall title — these achievements speak for themselves, and are particularly relevant with Pyeongchang 2018 on the horizon.
Clash of the titans! Heavyweight boxing legend Anthony Joshua’s round-11 defeat of imposing opponent Wladimir Klitschko attracted vast audiences and has received acclaim as one of the most impressive fights in boxing history. 90,000 people flocked to watch ‘AJ’ defeat ‘Dr. Steelhammer’ at Wembley Stadium, in addition to thousands tuning in from elsewhere, making this undoubtably one of 2017’s greatest sporting spectacles.
Sophie Hahn knocked over a tenth of a second off her own world record to clock 12.49 seconds for 100m, consolidating her position as the world’s biggest name in T38 sprinting (this category applies to those with cerebral palsy). It was a highly impressive performance for the 20-year old Charnwood athlete and a sign of what was to come in the Para-Athletics World Championships in London in two months’ time.
Liverpudlian Bianca Walkden entered the hearts of many by taking gold at the World Taekwondo Championships for the second successive year, an achievement yet to be matched by any other Britishwoman. Walkden also won the inaugural event of the World Taekwondo Grand Slam Series in China on December 30, making her presence on this list a borderline necessity.
July was one month where choosing a standout performance was about as easy as… finding your favourite strand of hay in a haystack of excellent performances. Adam Peaty’s achievements during the World Aquatics Championships were arguably the most impressive, coming out of the pool with a double gold — one in the 50m and one in the 100m. Peaty even set a world record during the semi-finals of the 50m, erasing any doubts that this was a truly excellent World Championships campaign.
The World Athletics Championships were brimming with impressive performances, but watching the GB men take surprise 4x100m gold in a European-record time was truly astonishing. It all came down to Nethaneel Mitchell-Blake’s incredible anchor leg, in which he held off up-and-coming American superstar Christian Coleman — it took a real performance to push Mo Farah’s 10,000m victory out of the spotlight, and I realise that this may be a contentious decision, but this was my pick for August.
Chris Froome is only the third rider ever to win both the Tour De France and Vuelta a Espana in a single year, and the first since the two races assumed their modern format. While his achievements have met controversy due to his failed doping test in December, at the time they were nearly unprecedented by any rider, British or not, and command respect.
Lewis Hamilton became the fifth driver in history to obtain four or more World Drivers’ Championship titles following a stellar series of Grand Prix races across the globe. While his ninth place final showing at the Mexico Grand Prix was slightly anticlimactic, it is the magnitude of his four-time champion status that instead secured his place on this list.
Although not as internationally prestigious as some of the other performances on this list, Emelia Gorecka’s Euro Trials victory took place in a very spectator-friendly environment in the unassuming Sefton Park in Liverpool and foreshadowed GB’s gold-medalling team performance in the World Cross Country Championships in December.
An impressive 2017 Premiership campaign involving 37 goals was what allowed Spurs striker Harry Kane to overthrow Alan Shearer’s 22-year-old single-season Premier League goals record. Not only that, but he did it with style — scoring a hat-trick against Southampton just days after doing the same against Burnley, making for a truly unforgettable achievement that may be last on the list, but is definitely not least.
