A Year in Sport: 2017


Another year has passed and once again it has been another incredible year of sport! Here's my breakdown of the sporting highlight from each month in 2017.

January
Roger Federer rolled back the years as he won the Australian Open back in January, his first Grand Slam win since 2012. And if that wasn't enough, he was up against Rafael Nadal, who was also making his first Grand Slam final appearance since winning the French Open in 2014.
For all tennis fans, it was the perfect final. As Brits, we've had the joys of watching Murray march to world number one and lead Great Britain to the Davis' Cup, but this was like a throwback to one of the greatest rivalries in tennis history. 
Federer, becoming the oldest Grand Slam finalist since 1974, came from a break down in the fifth set to claim his 18th major title - which helped to begin a very successful 2017 for the Swiss.

February
For all fans of the NFL, February only means one thing - Super Bowl. And this one, held in Houston, Texas, was going to prove as thrilling as ever.
The Atlanta Falcons entered the Super Bowl on the back of some very convincing victories after going under the radar for a lot of the season. A win in the NRG Stadium would be the franchises first Super Bowl win. Compared to their opponents, the New England Patriots, who were aiming for their fifth win under the leadership of Brady and Belichick. 
This was to turn into one of the greatest comeback's in sporting history, let alone NFL history. 
The Falcons were 28-3 with just a few minutes left of the third quarter, cue Tom Brady: G.O.A.T mode. The Patriots managed to fight back to 28-28, before winning 24-28 in overtime, the first time overtime has been needed in Super Bowl history.
With this Tom Brady cemented himself in NFL history as quite possibly the greatest quarterback in this history of the game.

March
England claimed a second successive Six Nations title and equaled New Zealand's 18 match winning streak in March. 
After a torrent 2015 World Cup, Eddie Jones has managed to change England's fortunes completely around. March saw England win the Six Nations with a game to spare for the second year in a row, even if they weren't able to win the Grand Slam and beat New Zealand's record as they lost in Dublin.
But the records England set this month shouldn't be ignored. We can start to see England as true World Cup contenders.

April 
This was the fight of the year and the one everyone wanted to see. The undefeated Brit, Anthony Joshua, against the legendary Wladimir Klitschko. Wembley was set. The country held it's breath.
And this fight did not disappoint. It seemed as if Joshua had the fight won in the fifth round when he put Klitschko to the floor, only to be knocked down himself a round later, the first time in his professional career. 
Anthony Joshua looked tired as the fight looked to go the distance, only for a Joshua to pull off a mad flurry of punches to win in TKO to hold onto his unbeaten record. This was the fight that put Anthony Joshua into contention to become a boxing legend.

May 
Real Madrid vs. Juventus was this year's Champions League final, held in Cardiff's Principality Stadium. 
Buffon, aged 39, was yet to win a Champions League, and it's fair to say that most of the footballing world was backing him for his first European trophy. 
Unfortunately for him, Real Madrid were set to win their third Champions League trophy in four years - what?? Ronaldo and co. were simply scintillating in front of the British crowd as they won the match 4-1. Even local hero, Gareth Bale, made an appearance in front of his home fans.
Coming out of the age of the great Barcelona team, Real Madrid have thrown their name into the hat for one of the great modern day football teams. 

June 
June saw the start of the 2017 Lions tour of New Zealand. Could the Lions repeat the success of the Australia tour 4 years previous and take a second consecutive series win?
It didn't get off to the best of starts. Despite scoring one of the great Lions' tries, they were humbled in the first test match.
They took the second test, mainly thanks to a Sonny Bill Williams sending off, to take the series to a third and deciding match.
Despite this being a highlight of the year, it had one of the most anti-climatic conclusions to a series. A tight game that seemed like it could go either way ended up finishing 15 points a piece, probably the only way people didn't see it going. The series finished in a draw and both captains lifted the trophy.

July 
One of this year's greatest achievements, England's women's cricket team won the World Cup on home soil for the first time, beating India in a thrilling final to keep the trophy from flying elsewhere. 
After losing to India in the round-robin group stage by 35 runs, England had their revenge with a win by just 9 runs at Lords'.
Anya Shrubsole wrote her name into Lords' folk history as she finished with bowling figures of 6/46 to help England to victory, and giving Shrubsole the player of the match award.

They very quickly became household names with the main aim of making sure more girls were interested in taking up the sport of cricket. I think they may have done their job well.

August 
The athletics track said goodbye to two legends at the World Championships in London. Usain Bolt and Mo Farah both participated in their last races on the world stage in front of a packed Olympic Stadium.
For neither it was the fairy tale ending. Usain Bolt finished third in his final 100m race, losing to two-time drug cheat Justin Gatlin - which I wrote a blog on back in August. He was still probably given the better reception post race, but he then pulled his hamstring on the final stretch of the relay, which was heart-ache to everyone watching.
Mo Farah managed to win yet another world title in the 10,000m, but finished with a silver medal in the 5,000m final, scuppering any chance of another major championship double. Leaving in London was probably the most poetic ending for Mo, who finished this year a knighthood and the Sports' Personality of the Year award.

September 
In the NFL, the sport unfortunately took a back seat as events off the field took full attention.
Following comments made by the President, many of the players took a knee during the national anthem in protest of those comments and against injustice and inequality in America.
This became a huge talking point in America, as many saw this as a disrespect towards the flag and war veterans who have fought for the country - although this could be seen to be ignoring the main issue.
You can read a full blog I wrote on this at the time by clicking here.

October 
The Houston Astros won their first ever baseball World Series with a 4-3 series win over the regular season favourite LA Dodgers. 
This win was so significant as it came just a couple of months after Hurricane Harvey caused massive flooding through Houston and south-east Texas. Houston was still reeling, but it may seem like sport is next-to-pointless in situations like this, but sport can help lift people when they feel down, and there is no doubt that the Astros win helped bring a smile to the people of Houston.

November 
The Rugby League World Cup final may have taken place in December, but the rest of the tournament was played in November, so this is allowed in here.
England went to Australia full of hope of coming away with what would have been a shock World Cup win, and they came so very, very close.
They were unlucky to lose as they did against Australia in the opening match of the tournament, but they made light work of the rest of the competition on their way to the final, where they came up against their old foes from down under.
Australia were favourites, alongside New Zealand, entering the tournament, so anything other than a Kangaroos win would have been a surprise.
And after one of the tensest finals in living memory, England were only a couple of better decisions and better passes away from an unlikely World Cup win.  
December 
It's hard for this not to be mentioned, but Harry Kane has had an incredible 2017.
In a match at Wembley Stadium vs Southampton in late December, Harry Kane scored a goal that would take his Premier League tally for 2017 to 37, eclipsing the record help by Alan Shearer for 12 years.
His second goal confirmed that Kane would finish 2017 with the most goals scored by anyone in Europe's top leagues (56) - beating the likes of Messi, Ronaldo and Neymar to that honour.
His third of the game secured his eighth hat-trick of the calendar year. Eight times during 2017, Harry Kane scored at least three goals in a game. To put this into context Messi and Ronaldo have only scored 3 between them.
For a man who was tipped as being a 'one season wonder' just a few years ago, he's not done too badly. 
There are plenty of highlights that were worthy of possibly being included in the list. Chris Froome's Tour de France win. Mayweather vs. McGregor in Las Vegas. Exeter Chiefs taking the Aviva Premiership title.


But for now, we say goodbye to 2017. But don't you worry, there is plenty to look forward to in 2018. Here is a calendar created by the BBC to keep you up-to-date.

What has your sporting highlight of 2017 been? Share and comment.

You can read my other blogs at ScriptEye and I Can't Write Words here.

Comments