Friday, November 07, 2008

Sports Personality of the Year.

Only 34 shopping days until the Sports Personality of the Year is chosen. The lobbying has already started. Mandrake in today's Telegraph reports that wonderful swimmer and home town girl, Rebecca Adlington is none too impressed by the claims of Lewis Hamilton. She thinks that some of the Olympian gold medallists have a stronger case. I'm definitely with Rebecca on this.

Lewis Hamilton is indeed a world champion - but he wouldn't have won if he'd been driving anything other than a Maclaren or a Ferrari. Also, he made plenty of mistakes through the season, and needed the most incredible stroke of luck in the form of heavy rain on the last lap to win it. Chris Hoy, Rebecca Adlington and others won through the exertions and skillful deployment of their own bodies, in competition with everyone else in the world. OK, I suppose Chris could have been riding a more aerodynamic bike, or Rebecca could have been wearing a more aerodynamic swimsuit. Whatever, my vote goes to Nicole Cooke, who won the first UK gold medal and set the tone of UK victory for the games. She wins my vote because of her longer record of world beating performances. I thought she should have won it last year. So its 34 shopping days to go. Lets hear it for Nicole. And best of luck tonight Joe Calzhage, last year's winner. Just keep up with the Jones for the first few rounds, and use your fantastic hand speed and relentlessness to drive forward to legendary status. Then retire - please.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Please remember that this is a Sports PERSONALITY contest, not a sports achiever contest.

Of those mentioned, I would say that Lewis Hamilton is by far the greater personality than any of the others and has gone way beyond the realms of local recognition.

Anonymous said...

Just hope that the British public's notorously short memories can actually remember the Olympics and that Hoy will be voted in!

Grenada said...

Lewis has never made any claims for this award - that is a lie. It is Rebecca who says she deserves it not him. I think that is disgustingly unsporting and arrogant of her. I think Lewis should win as he is the most amazing thing to hit British sport for decades; he is a wonderful person and has such a brilliant history running up to his championship win. Saying all that, I don't think he will win because there is too much negativity surrounding him and people making up stupid lies like you have.

Glyn Davies said...

anon - matter of opinion. I think Rebecca, Nicole and Chris Hoy have terrific personalities.

unixman - I think Hoy would be a terrific choice.

grenada - Didn't mean 'claims' in the way you've taken it. Perhaps you should calm down a bit. All I did was express an opinion. Lewis Hamilton is a great talent, but I don't think his claims to be declared Sports Personality of the Year are as strong as others. No big deal.

Che Grav-ara said...

Glyn to be fair if it wasn't for the rain coming Lewis Hamilton wouldn't have gone in and changed tyres meaning that he would have finished above Glock either way so I think its a tad harsh on him to say he only won as a stroke of luck.

That said I agree that he shouldn't win it and my vote would go to Chris Hoy.

To be fair Calzaghe has now achieved more this year in my eyes in beating Hopkins (which looks especially good given Hopkins dismantling of Kelly Pavlik) and Jones Jr than he did the year he won.

Somehow I can't see Scotlands Hoy pipping Lewis Hamilton

Glyn Davies said...

Che - I thought his victory over Lacy was his best win. Hopkins and Jones have been wonderful boxers, but are past it. I looked on them as two much deserved paydays for a terrific career. And now its time to go. He may look for another payday in the UK to finish off, but he'll have to fight someone really dangerous to capture the public's admiration. Remember that Formula One is ITV and the Personality of the Year is on BBC.

Che Grav-ara said...

Fair point Glyn but its publicly voted so i doubt TV stations will matter. Plus Formula 1 is returning to the BBC so if anything its a result for them if he does win.

For me it was the Kessler win that was his best.