Sunday, October 08, 2006

Joe Calzaghe - or Nicole Cooke

Wales has this year's two best British candidates for the title of 2006 Sports Personality of The Year.
Joe Calzaghe sounded a very frustrated man this week when he rightly predicted that he wouldn't win - but I do not agree that it is because he is a winner, not a loser. But he does have a point. If he had broken down in floods of tears after his magnificent victory over Jeff Lacey earlier in the year or invented a story about how he had overcome some sort of emotional problem when he was a child, he would walk the title. It not about sporting acheivement any more. Perhaps if he gives the Viking Warrier, Mikkel Kessler the same treatment in 2007 as he gave Lacey in 2006, he will be in with a shout of the title next year.
But Joe would not have my vote anyway. It goes to Nicole Cooke, the Bridgend cyclist who has been Britain's top sports performer in 2006. She is the first ever British world No.1 cyclist (man or woman), she is the current World Champion roadracer and she won the 2006 Tour de France. What more can she do? And she is a wonderful ambassador for world sport as well. Nicole Cooke is a genuine all round champion. And its not as if women's cycling is a minority sport. There are just as many professional female cyclists as there are female tennis players. But Sharapova flashing her knickers is more eye catching than Nicole in a helmet wearing cycling shorts. Anyone who cares about the future of sport should vote for 'Cooke' this year.

1 comment:

Woman of Wales said...

No contest it has to be Joe Calzaghe. If he was English he would have would have been plastered all over the press for years and would already have won the Sports Personality award at least once. Why not get the Assembly to take up his cause and get Wales to vote for him, he truly deserves it and is an excellent ambassador for the valleys and Wales. And I don't even like boxing that much!