It’s that time of the year again. Sports reviews of the year are prepared, lists of outstanding achievements are compiled, and awards are handed out to the leading performers of the year.
On Sunday the BBC Sports Personality of the Year was presented to the English cricketer, all-rounder Ben Stokes, who’s Man of the Match performance in the 2019 ICC World Cup Final, was followed by an unbeaten fairytale century in the one wicket defeat of the Australians in the Third Ashes Test. The public vote gave Stokes the nod over six-time Formula One champion Lewis Hamilton, who occupied the runner-up position for the fourth time.
Cricket was the hot subject at the BBC ceremony as, England, World Cup winners took the award for the Best Team, and England’s wicketkeeper Jos Buttler breaking the stumps to seal the victory over the Kiwis at Lords, was deemed to be the Greatest Sporting Moment of the Year. Thirty-five year old Eliud Kipchoge, the Kenyan marathoner who, in October, became the first man to run a marathon in under two hours, was voted World Sports Star of the Year.
Other memorable moments of the year include Tiger Woods winning a Major tournament for the first time in eleven years, and the epic duel in the Men’s Final at Wimbledon, where top seeded Novak Djokovic battled number two Roger Federer to retain the title. In a five set contest, which lasted just three minutes shy of five hours, Djokovic saved two championship points, before taking the deciding set 13- 12.
The ugly shadow of performance enhancing drugs continuing to loom over the sporting world has to be the low point of the year. The sending home in disgrace of former marathon record holder, Alberto Salazar, now coach, from the IAAF World Championships, the recipient of a four-year ban from the United States Anti-Doping Agency, and WADA’s second banning of Russian athletes from World Events are announcements we would prefer not to remember from 2019.
Outstanding performances in other sporting activities, which are not as popular as televised events, are quite often overlooked, a fate which will most likely befall Nirmal ‘Nims’ Purja, a Nepalese mountaineer. On 29th October, Purja shattered the record for successfully scaling the world’s 14 highest peaks, all of which are more than 8000 metres (26,340 ft) in height, completing the feat in 189 days. The previous record of seven years, ten months and six days had been held by the South Korean climber Kim Chang-ho.
Purja, a 36 year old former Gurkha, quit the British army earlier this year to pursue his ‘Project Possible’ – 14 peaks / 7 months — which took him to the Himalayan and Karakoram mountain ranges in Nepal, Tibet and Pakistan. In conquering the 14 ‘eight-thousanders’ Purja battled lack of oxygen, sub zero temperatures, blinding snow storms and a traffic jam of trekkers waiting to scale Mount Everest. On the way to this Herculean achievement, Purja even managed to rescue stranded climbers.
Purja’s conquest of the highest peaks in the world required traversing some of the most dangerous territory on Planet Earth and can serve as inspiration to others of what can be achieved once they focus their minds on specific goals.
Here in the West Indies, it has been a topsy-turvy year on the field, but more importantly, and quite unexpectedly, a changing of the guard, off the field. A year in which, the Cameron administration was swept out of office. A year which began with the regaining of the Wisden Trophy, and high hopes for a good showing in the ICC World Cup, quickly descended into the depths of despair.
A very disappointing performance in the World Cup was followed by a sound thrashing in all three formats from the visiting Indians in August. The good returns from the recent series against Afghanistan, which was staged in India, should be taken lightly, considering Afghanistan’s low ranking. At the time of writing, the West Indies currently lead the three-match ODI series with India, 1 – 0, following brilliant batting performances from Shimron Hetmyer and Shai Hope.
Can the West Indies maintain the momentum and win the series and finish the year on a high note? Purja’s relentless assault on the ‘eight-thousanders’ is a fine example that any heights can be scaled once the will and determination are there.
