Rugby tops 2007 sport highlights
Brad Morgan
24 December 2007With the end of 2007 speeding nearer, it's time to look back on a year that produced plenty of highlights for South Africa on the world's sporting stages, from individual to team successes.
Rugby
Pride of place at the top of the list belongs to rugby's Springboks, because their feat of winning the World Cup for the second time was the sporting achievement that was celebrated more than any other by South Africa's sport loving population.
Just as the image of Nelson Mandela handing the Webb Ellis Trophy to Francois Pienaar in 1995 is etched into the memories of those lucky enough to have witnessed that World Cup final against the All Blacks, the image of the 2007 Boks celebrating their win over England with President Thabo Mbeki is one that has been burned into the collective consciousness.
There was so much to be proud of in the performance of John Smit and his team, who earned praise for their humble and committed approach in France; as the World Cup progressed and it became clear that South Africa was on a roll, with a favourable path cleared towards the final in Paris, the entire country became swamped with rugby fever.
When the trophy was won it exploded in celebration. For weeks afterwards the feelings of patriotism could be seen as vehicles of all sizes sported the national flag.
To top off the World Cup victory, Bryan Habana was named IRB Player of the Year, Jake White the Coach of the Year, and South Africa the Team of the Year as the Springboks finished 2007 ranked number one.
Beyond the Boks
Beyond the Boks, too, it was a fantastic year for South African rugby.
A number of other national teams performed with distinction as the Emerging Springboks won the IRB Nations Cup, while the SA under-21 and SA under-19 teams finished as runners-up at the World Championships.
The Blue Bulls edged the Sharks 20-19 in an edge-of-the-seat first-ever all-South African final of the Super 14 competition, a final which gave South Africans confidence that the Springboks had a shot at conquering the world at the World Cup.
Cricket
South Africa's cricket team endured an up-and-down year, but it was for the most part a positive time.
Before the World Cup in the West Indies, the Proteas accomplished a feat many had believed was out of sight, ascending to the world number one ranking in one-day international cricket just before the event got underway after a dominating 4-1 series win over Pakistan.
Unfortunately, uncharacteristically inconsistent performances hamstrung the team's results and Graeme Smith's men bowed out of the competition in the semi-finals, after being hammered by the eventual winners, Australia.
A chance for redemption presented itself when South Africa hosted the inaugural Twenty20 World Championship in September. However, after winning all their matches, the Proteas lost the one that mattered and failed to reach the semi-finals.
The tournament itself was a great success, so much so that tournament director Steve Elworthy was signed by the England and Wales Cricket Board (ECB) to fill the same role for the 2009 tournament.
Back to winning ways
After the disappointment of their exit from the T20 World Championship, the Proteas almost immediately headed for Pakistan and a tough challenge on the slower pitches favoured by the opposition.
Led by the astounding batting form of Jacques Kallis, South Africa scored a coveted test series victory, with Kallis scoring three centuries and a fifty in four innings at an average of 210.5.
The Proteas then fought back from 2-1 down to capture the ODI series by a margin of 3-2.
Back home, New Zealand couldn't hold back a fast bowling onslaught led by Dale Steyn as South Africa thrashed the Kiwis in two one-sided test matches. With two 10-wicket hauls, Steyn rocketed up the test bowling rankings to third in the world.
The test victories were followed by a 2-1 ODI series win over the Black Caps and a victory in the one-off T20 clash.
The late year successes, with the emergence of Steyn and the sustained brilliance of Kallis, has SA cricket fans in an optimistic frame of mind once more after the disappointments of the World Cup and the T20 World Championship.
Football
2007 was not a good year for South African football. Bafana Bafana slipped down the world rankings to finish 77th in the year-end Fifa world rankings, occupying only 17th place in Africa.
Many times it appeared that predominantly overseas-based Bafana Bafana selections lacked the passion exhibited by national teams composed of more locally-based players.
Coach Carlos Alberto Parreira appeared to notice this too when he announced a 23-man squad for January's African Cup of Nations that included only eight players who ply their trade abroad.
Benni McCarthy
A surprising omission was that of Blackburn Rovers' striker Benni McCarthy after he was persuaded to return to the Bafana Bafana ranks following a self-imposed international retirement.
His current form hasn't attained the heights it reached in the 2006/2007 season, but that showing by McCarthy produced the individual highlight for SA football this past year.
He finished the season as the second highest scorer in the English Premier League with 17 goals, trailing only Didier Drogba and tied with Player of the Season Cristiano Ronaldo, and totalled 24 goals in all.
In a league that produced three of the four Uefa Champions League semi-finalists, that was no mean feat for a first season in the Premiership. At £2.5-million, McCarthy was also a relative bargain in the big-money world of professional football.
Golf
Golf, as usual, proved to be a strong sport for SA. Seven South Africans finished the year ranked in the top 100, with six of them occupying positions in the top 50: Ernie Els (4), Rory Sabbatini (11), Trevor Immelman (19), Retief Goosen (26), Tim Clark (29), Richard Sterne (44), and Charl Schwartzel (83).
Els claimed a record seventh win in the HSBC World Matchplay Championships, while Sabbatini won the Crowne Plaza Invitational at Colonial on the US PGA Tour. Immelman was in sublime form when he captured the Nedbank Challenge at Sun City late in the year.
Goosen had a down year, but won the Qatar Masters in January, while Clark failed to land a title, but three times finished as runner-up on the tough PGA Tour. Sterne captured the Celtic Manor Wales Open, and Schwartzel claimed his first title outside of South Africa when he lifted the Spanish Open title.
Anton Haig, at age 20, won big in February when he annexed the Johnnie Walker Classic in Thailand, while the future of SA golf looks pretty secure after Dylan Frittelli became the first South African in 24 years to win the 15-to-17 age group at the World Junior Championships.
There was also success for South Africa in women's golf as Ashleigh Simon, after a sparkling amateur career, turned professional and quickly claimed her first victory in the paid ranks in the Catalonia Ladies Masters in Spain.
Surfing
South African surfers excelled around the world, with 19-year-old Jordy Smith leading the way. The supremely-talented Durbanite captured the Association of Surfing Professional's (ASP) World Qualifying Series (WQS), scoring a record number of points as he won by a convincing margin over second-placed Dane Reynolds.
His year included wins in the six-star-rated Sooruz Lacanau Pro in France, the four-star-rated Hot Tuna Central Coast Pro in Australia, the four-star-rated O'Neill Coldwater Classic in the USA, and the one-star-rated Lizzard Nandos Surf Pro presented by the Weekend Witness at New Pier in Durban.
Those victories, along with strong consistency, clinched the WQS title for Smith and he will, no doubt, be someone the surfing world will watch with huge interest when he campaigns on the World Championship Tour (WCT) in 2008.
Royden Bryson also qualified for the WCT by finishing 18th on the WQS. Competing on the WCT for the first time in 2007, he managed a quarterfinal position at the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach in Australia and back-to-back ninth places in two events in Europe.
He also excelled on the WQS, with consistently good results, including third-place finishes in Newquay and the Canary Islands.
Bryson finished 27th on the elite WCT, three places behind South Africa's top finisher, Ricky Basnett. Greg Emslie ended in 30th position, Travis Logie in 31st despite undergoing knee surgery, and David Weare in 47th place.
Rosanne Hodge finished 12th on the Women's WCT and 24th in the WQS. Nikita Robb, in 19th place, was the best South African on the WQS.
Surf skiing
South African surf skiers confirmed their status as among the best, if not the best, in the world.
Fuelling this argument is the outstanding results achieved early in December at the Perth World Cup where South Africans finished in the top five positions, with Clint Pretorius taking victory after Oscar Chalupsky was docked 30-seconds for taking the wrong line into the finish at Sorrento Bay.
The success Down Under was not a one-off kind of result. Just before the Perth event, Dawid Mocke won the sport's biggest prize purse when he captured the Dubai Shamaal only a week after winning the Dragon Run in Hong Kong.
In Dubai, South Africans filled four of the top five positions, while in Hong Kong they finished first, third, and sixth.
At the Surf Ski World Cup in Durban, Oscar Chalupsky captured the title, relegating 2006 winner Hank McGregor to second, with Australia's Dean Gardiner in third. Matt Bouman finished fourth, with another Aussie, Tim Jacobs, in fifth, followed by another five South Africans to complete the top 10.
Barry Lewin scored a prestigious victory in San Francisco when he teamed with Tahitian legend Lewis Laughlan to win the United States double-ski title.
Canoeing
Like many of the top SA surf skiers, Lewin also excelled in canoeing and his results included winning the Souliga Challenge in the Caribbean Netherlands Antilles and victory in the Liffey Descent in Ireland.
Ant Stott and Abbey Miedema set new records in winning the Dusi Canoe Marathon, while Len Jenkins established a new record when he won the Fish River Canoe Marathon for the fourth time.
Miedema and Hank McGregor won the Berg River Marathon, with Miedema's win her third in the event, and McGregor's his fourth.
Sailing
Also in watersports, Mark Sadler of the Royal Cape Yacht Club captured the J22 World Championships off Durban.
As skipper of South Africa's Team Shosholoza, Sadler was part of a crew that captured the hearts of the sailing world with a superb showing as the colourful South African entrant excelled in her first ever America's Cup competition.
Shosholoza, despite a far smaller budget than most of the opposition she faced, managed to end in seventh place, which was the best ever finish by a first-timer in the history of the event.
Swimming
South African swimmers captured two titles at the Fina World Championships in Melbourne, with Gerhard Zandberg winning the 50 metres backstroke and Roland Schoeman the 50 metres butterfly. Cameron van der Burgh took bronze in the 50 breaststroke.
Schoeman was also honoured at a national awards ceremony in September, along with former Springbok rugby captain Morné du Plessis, former head of the National Olympic Committee of South Africa, Sam Ramsamy, and the late Kitch Christie, who coached the Springboks to victory in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
Cycling
It was a good year for South African cycling as the SA-sponsored Team Barloworld made a big noise at the Tour de France.
Sprint ace Robbie Hunter became the first South African to win a stage of the race when he rocketed to victory on stage 11, while climber Mauricio Soler recorded a stirring win on stage nine and went on to win the King of the Mountains' title. He was later named Colombian Athlete of the Year.
Cherise Taylor showed women's cycling is in good hands when she won silver in the road race at the Junior World Championships, which was the best ever result by a South African at world championship level.
Paralympics
South Africans also excelled at the Paralympic World Cup in Manchester.
Natalie du Toit, swimming at the same venue as the 2002 Commonwealth Games, at which she earned the first David Dixon award for the Outstanding Athlete of the Games, won three gold medals. She won in the multi-disability (MD) 100 metres freestyle, the S9 100 metres freestyle, and the MD 50 metres freestyle.
Double-amputee Oscar Pistorius, who earlier in the year had cracked the 11-second barrier in the 100 metres, scored a 100-200 double in the T44 categtory, while Teboho Mokgalagadi also did the double in the T35 category.
Boxing
Boxing produced a number of world champions in the alphabet-soup of "world" titles. Among the more notable achievements of 2007 was Cassius Baloyi winning his fifth world title when he claimed the vacant IBO junior-welterweight crown.
Mzonka Fana defeated another South African, Malcolm Klassen, to win the IBF junior-lightweight belt, while another all-South African showdown saw Isaac Hlatshwayo defeat Joseph Makaringe for the vacant IBO welterweight title.
Zolani Marali, a former IBO and WBF junior featherweight champion, won his third world title by stopping Dario Lombardo to lift the vacant WBF junior lightweight belt.
Motorsport
Adrian Zaugg produced hopes that South Africa might have found itself a world class motorsport talent when he opened the 2007/08 A1 GP World Cup of Motorsport with an exhilarating showing at Zandvoort in the Netherlands.
Zaugg won the sprint race and finished second in the feature race to get A1 GP Team South Africa off to a flying start to the season.
Bowls
Finally, South Africa's bowlers proved they remain the class of Africa when they dominated the African States Bowls Championships.
In both the men's and women's competitions, South Africa won the overall titles, winning six out of eight possible gold medals, as well as two bronze medals.
|
