John Coomber presents his wonderful sporting moments of 2007.
THE BABY-FACED MISSILE
Casey Stoner looks way too frail, innocent and fresh-faced to be the dominant figure in a macho pursuit like MotoGP racing.
But no one can make one of those monster machines sing quite like Stoner on his Ducati. By the time the 21-year-old lined up at Phillip Island in October for his home race he had already been crowned world champion. This was more like a lap of honour. He cruised to the lead not long after the start and 50,000 delirious fans cheered as he sizzled home nearly seven seconds in front of the rest of the field. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt anything like it,” he said as he became the first Australian to win at Phillip Island since Mick Doohan in 1998. When the season was tallied up, Stoner had won 10 races and equalled Valentino Rossi’s all-time points record.
CADEL’S TOUR DE FORCE
It was one small step for Cadel Evans to mount the podium in the Champs Elysees. That’s if you don’t count the three weeks of sheer hell as he pushed his bike through the streets of London, the meadows of Belgium, the villages of Spain and the mountains of France in this somewhat misnamed race. Evans’s achievements in becoming the first Australian to finish on the podium in the Tour de France gave his countrymen a reason to celebrate an event that has been darkened by the stain of doping in recent years. After all that toil, Evans finished second, just 23 seconds behind Spain’s Alberto Contador. His success has also convinced sponsors to lend their support to the long-held dream of an Australian pro team in Europe.
BECKS BENDS IT BEFORE OUR VERY EYES
He’s as Australian as whelks and warm beer, but who cares? When David Beckham comes to town the world game comes along for the ride. How else can you explain the phenomenon of 80,000 people shelling out up to $85 a head to watch a soccer game between two ordinary club sides on a Tuesday night? Hands up who can remember the result of the match between Sydney FC and LA Galaxy. But who will ever forget the moment when the man in the No.23 shirt drew back that golden right boot and curled a free kick around the wall and into the top corner of the net. We’ve seen it on TV, we’ve read about, we’ve watched movies about it. But now we know first hand why there’s no-one else who can bend it like Beckham.
THE MOTHER OF ALL HURDLERS
Jana Rawlinson’s legs had spent most of the previous year carrying round her unborn son Cornelis. Now they carried her round the track and over 10 hurdles in Osaka, Japan to her second world 400m hurdles title. Rawlinson’s return from knee surgery and motherhood to victory in the most gut-busting event in track and field makes her a standout in the build-up to the Beijing Olympics. She also revealed a softer, more appealing side than was apparent when she and fellow athlete Tamsyn Lewis were sniping at one another a year or two earlier. Still there, however, is the trademark bumblebee tattoo on her abdomen – reminding her that just like those aerodynamically-challenged creatures, she too can beat the odds and stay airborne.
BATTED, SHANE. BYE, GLENN
It seems a long time ago now, but 2007 goes down as the year in which Shane Keith Warne and Glenn Donald McGrath bade farewell to Test cricket. They chose their final stage well. Australia completed a 5-0 Ashes whitewash in the New Year Test in Sydney and won back the urn so compellingly seized by England in 2005. Warne left with a world record tally of 708 Test wickets (now overtaken by Muttiah Muralitharan), and as if to show everyone he could still bat, adorned his final Test with a rousing innings of 71. Not to be outdone, McGrath took a wicket with the 29,248th and last delivery of his Test career. And he wasn’t quite done with that. He went to the Caribbean a few months later and was player of the tournament as Australia closed out its third consecutive World Cup.
YEAR OF THE CAT OR COUSINS
President Kennedy was alive the last time it happened. Which is why Geelong is still celebrating its football team’s first AFL premiership flag since 1963. It was no fluke, either. The Cats were the dominant team of the season and won the Grand Final accordingly. In contrast to the white-knuckle deciders between Sydney and West Coast in the previous two years, this one was effectively over by quarter-time, leaving plenty of time for Geelong fans to savour the most one-sided final in the code’s history (119 points over Port Adelaide). That’s as well, because without it, the season may have been remembered only for the soap opera of Ben Cousins and the ham-fisted management of his drug addiction. Cousins reportedly started and ended the year in rehab. In between he returned to the field in round 16 playing as good as ever as the Eagles beat the Swans in a grand final re-match. A hamstring injury ended his season, and possibly career, in a heartbreaking three-point qualifying final loss to Port in Adelaide that could have gone the other way had the 29-year-old problem child remained on the ground. The former Brownlow Medallist has been banned for a year by the AFL and may never return to the sport he once dominated.
JOEY’S MIXED FAREWELL AS STORM RAGES
Andrew Johns played a total of 84 minutes football in 2007, but he remained centre stage for all the wrong reasons. After getting knocked unconscious by a high shot from Sonny Bill Williams four minutes into the first round of the season, Johns played only one more game for the Newcastle Knights before hurting his neck at training. Within days he had announced his retirement after being told he risked catastrophic neck injuries if he played on. He was rightly lionised for a matchless career, but four months later was arrested in London and found to be carrying an ecstasy tablet in his pocket. After some initial dissembling, Johns poured his heart out on television, confessing to a long-term drug addiction which he said had helped him cope with the pressure of being who he is. On the field Melbourne Storm erased the memories of a shock 2006 grand final defeat at the hands of Brisbane to record the team’s much-deserved second premiership after dominating the competition for two years. Captain Cameron Smith was later named the code’s international player of the year.
HOT LAPS WITH LIBBY
Plenty of swimmers know what it’s like to chase Michael Phelps home. Libby Lenton is now one of them. In Sydney she swam the first leg of a mixed relay against the US champion and hit the touch-pad in 52.99 seconds – metres faster than any woman had swum before or since for the 100m freestyle. FINA said no to ratifying the world record, but Lenton now knows just what she is capable of. That’s not good news for her rivals in Beijing next year, because a fortnight before that swim she won five golds medals at the world titles in Melbourne – the 50m and 100m freestyles, 100m butterfly and the 4x100m freestyle and medley relays. Add to that the imperious form of her Queensland team mates Leisel Jones (breaststroke) and Jess Schipper (butterfly) and the Aussie girls will take some stopping in Beijing next August.
LIZ LEAVES US IN STYLE
Everything Liz Ellis does has a touch of grace and style about it. So it is fitting that she got the fairytale farewell she had dreamed of. The most capped Australian netballer of all time (122 Tests) led her country to a heart-stopping 42-38 win over arch rivals New Zealand in the world championship final in Auckland. She described the fourth term as the most unbelievable quarter of netball she had ever played in. Her team mates say they were inspired by her fantastic defence against Kiwi star Irene van Dyke. As it turned out, the 34-year-old Ellis had already decided this would be her last match, but not wanting to hog the limelight, she said not a word until the team had returned home.
EI NOTHING TO BE SNEEZED AT
The roar of the crowd, the thunder of hooves … For much of this season it’s been replaced by the silence of the stands and the sniffling in the stalls. Equine influenza (EI) devastated the racing industry in NSW and Queensland for the entire Spring after it first appeared in stallions in a quarantine station in western Sydney. It spread to almost 5000 properties and 38,000 horses in NSW alone. With no horse racing, the desperates were left to bet on greyhounds and flies crawling up walls for three months. No wonder a bumper crowd cheered themselves hoarse when the action resumed at Randwick on December 1 and Takeover Target mowed down Dance Hero in the final strides. The Lloyd Williams-owned Efficient, ridden by Michael Rodd, was a surprise Melbourne Cup winner while the Colin Little-trained El Segundo with Luke Nolen aboard took out the Cox Plate.
AND THE ONES WE’D RATHER FORGET
+ The Wallabies lose to England in the World Cup quarter finals
+ The Davis Cup and Fed Cup tennis teams lose world group status
+ The Socceroos crash out of the Asia Cup
+ Aaron Baddeley shoots 80 after leading into the final round of the US Open
+ Grant Hackett bombs out in the world swimming championships, including his first 1500m defeat in more than a decade.
+ Hot favourite Maldivian rears up in the stalls before the Caulfield Cup and cuts himself on a piece of TV equipment, forcing him to miss the race.
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