The Sports Lowdown For All Your News and Opinions2016 has been a very eventful year for many reasons and the same can be said for sporting events in 2016. There has been some memorable and important moments for British sport in 2016 and in this article I look at the top 25 moments for British Sport from this year, these can be either from Great Britain as a whole or from one of the four nations as an individual.
25- Amy Tinkler’s Bronze at the Rio Olympic’s
The Great Britain team did amazingly well at this summer’s Olympics in Rio as they managed to gain the biggest medal haul since 1908 (more Olympic stories in this list). Rhythmic Gymnastics has been a sport which team GB has been average in, in recent games. The female team have always managed to qualify for the team final, but come 4th or 5th and then in the Individuals we manage a medal or two.
This was the same this year with Amy Tinkler managing to get a bronze in the Floor final. Tinkler is from South Durham Gym which is based in Spennymoor and is from near by in Bishop Aukland, both in County Durham. Tinkler is only 16 years old and was competing in her very first games and did extremely well as she got a Bronze medal in a very hard floor final, which American Simone Biles won, Tinkler finished with a score of 14.933.
This is included in this list because the floor exercise is incredibly hard and she managed to qualify and finish ahead of experienced Gymnasts like Vanessa Ferrari and Catalina Ponor. She will definitely be the future of British Gymnastics and could win many medals at the Olympics and at World Championships in years to come.
24-The rise of Johanna Konta
There has been a lack of success for Britain, when it has come to women’s Tennis. For the men’s game, Andy Murray is taking it to the next level and is flying the British flag high ( more about him in a later part) but there hasn’t been much representation in the women’s game. Johanna Konta entered this year as the highest British woman at number 48, the first top 50 player since Heather Watson.
She had a slow start to the year, losing in the first round at Shenzen and Hobart, however she stepped up her game at the Australian Open and managed to be the first British woman at a Grand Slam semi final for 32 years and that performance saw her move up to 28th. After good performances in the WTA events and Eastbourne, she managed to become the first seeded home female at Wimbledon for over 30 years. She managed to claim her first ever WTA title. With more good WTA performances, she managed to be lifted in the top 10 but narrowly missed out on the WTA finals.
Though she didn’t win much this year, this is important for British sport. Like Amy Tinkler, it shows good potential for the future and success at tournaments next year and there after. It is a big step in the right direction for British female Tennis.
23-Northern Ireland at the Euro’s
Northern Ireland have never done well at any major competition in football and they have rarely qualified for any World cup or Euro’s. They managed to qualify for their very first European Championships in France this summer by winning a group made up of teams like Romania, Greece and Hungary.
They were put into a hard group, having to face Poland, Ukraine and current World Champions Germany. Against Germany and Poland, they managed to hold them to lose 1-0 on both occasions. Baring in mind the difference in the rankings of the teams, to lose only 1-0 is a very good result. However their final match against Ukraine ended in a 2-0 win for Northern Ireland. This result saw them into the next round of the Euro’s where they lost 1-0 to Wales.
Though Northern Ireland only made it to the last 16, this was a very good result based on their history and rankings at the time. This can only be a positive for the team and will give them a lot of confidence going into the qualification for the 2018 World Cup and they may even make their first World Cup since 1958, this can only be a positive for British Football.
22-Justin Rose wins gold at the Olympics
This years Olympics saw the return of Golf in the games and there were some big names on show and representing team GB was Danny Willett and Justin Rose. Rose is a seasoned professional and has been in the major tours since 1999. He has many tours, including the PGA Tour seven times and the European tour nine times, and he has done well in other major tournaments and opens, winning the US Open in 2013, and has represented Europe in the Ryder cup four times.
The Olympic’s had some very good professionals, such as Bubba Watson and Henrik Stenson, and it was always going to be a very good competition. On the first day, Australian, Marcus Fraser, took an early lead ending the day on -8, whilst Rose was in tied 4th on -4. Fraser kept his lead ending the second day on -10 with Rose ending with -6 and still in 4th place. However on the third day Rose fired a -6, taking his score to -12 and giving him a one shot lead over Stenson. The final day saw both Stenson and Rose fire a -4 and giving the win to Rose, who ended on -16.
Rose is a very good golfer and his Gold medal at the Olympics shows that though he is 36 years old, he still has plenty of good years left in him to add to his prolific and successful career. He will help take British golf upwards and into the future.
21-Ireland 40-29 New Zealand
In men’s Rugby Union, New Zealand have set themselves as undoubtedly the best team in the world. It is rare to see them off the number 1 spot and have won the last two World Cup’s relatively easily. Ireland also have a very good Rugby Union team who have been around the top 5 in the world continuously for the past few years and they are one of the best teams in the Six Nations, either challenging for the win or winning it.
New Zealand met Ireland at Soldier Field in Chicago, United States and they were both playing with full strength squads. Ireland were the first to score when Sexton scored a penalty to put Ireland 3-0 up early on however New Zealand scored a try but missed the conversion to go 5-3 up but then went a man down. Tries from Murphy, Kearney and Murray gave Ireland a 25-8 lead going into half time. Ireland went further in the lead when Zubo got a try to put them 30-8 up, but a spur of New Zealand dominance cut that lead down to 33-29 going into the last 20 minutes. However, a final try from Henshaw, saw Ireland end the match 40-29.
This is very good for Ireland as it was a historic first win over the All Blacks for 111 years. They showed class and dominance over a New Zealand team who hadn’t lost in their last 18 matches. Playing New Zealand at any time is hard but it shows that Ireland could be successful in the near future as they look to next years Six Nations.
That has has been the first part to the Top 25 moment in British Sport in 2016, check back next week for moments 20-16.
