Superstars on the horizon

In a year without an Olympics or major football world championship there were still myriad events and achievements to keep the armchair fan on the edge of his/her seat.

It is a year that can be summarised, aptly, along with the New Year message of ‘out with the old and in with the new’. A series of high-profile retirements have been married to the emergence of superstars who could dominate for years. Meanwhile, there are some who continue to dominate their chosen sport.

Sir Alex Ferguson retired after more than 26 years in charge, his reign culminating with a record 13th title that capped a career that also brought two European Cups, a European Cup Winners’ Cup, five FA Cups and four League Cups.

Gareth Bale was transferred to Real Madrid for a world record 100 million euros while Lionel Messi was honoured at the start of the year by being proclaimed the best footballer in the world for a record fourth successive year.

However, the form player at the end of the year has to be Liverpool’s Luis Suarez who was desperately trying to orchestrate a move away from his club over the summer, despite them standing by him while serving bans for racist abuse and biting Chelsea’s Branislav Ivanovic. He appears to have put that behind him and became the first player in Premier League history to score 10 goals in a calendar month.

Yet, the European club scene has been dominated by Germany and one side in particular – Bayern Munich. The fact that the best individual player nominations generally head towards Spain serves to further endorse the power of the team collective. Bayern won the domestic title and cup along with the UEFA Super Cup, Club World Cup and the European Cup, pipping rivals Borussia Dortmund in an all-German affair in London.

Perhaps some of the biggest news in golf came off the course in 2013 with the R&A finally outlawing the anchoring of putters, a rule change that will take effect in 2016. Further controversy raged with the hosting of the British Open at an all-male club, Muirfield. With Augusta finally having succumbed to external pressure and admitted female members, the Scottish club really felt the backlash.

On the course, Tiger Woods announced his comeback with five significant victories, although none were Majors although he also breached the rules on four occasions. Rory McIlroy, another to suffer off the course, bounced back from his legal battles with his former management company and a slow adjustment to new clubs to finally find some rhythm in winning the Australian Open.

However, it was Henrik Stenson who topped the money list on both the European and American tours. Yet he was not the most dominant golfer this year. That accolade goes to the Korean, Inbee Park, who won the first three Majors, failing to win the British at St Andrew’s when Stacey Lewis birdied the famous road-hole. The women’s game also produced Europe’s first ever win on American soil in the Solheim Cup, securing victory by an emphatic margin of 18 points to 10.

Another sport that will witness massive rule changes is Formula One. Coming to Bahrain three times within a matter of months, the drastic overhaul of the rulebook, most notably permitting engine changes for the first time in eight years, is certainly needed after Sebastien Vettel became the youngest four-time world champion, in the process screeching past Michael Schumacher’s record for most consecutive wins in a season. While Red Bull continued their domination they must be looking over their shoulder at Mercedes who exceeded early expectations. Ferrari and McLaren will hope to make the most of the new parts to become competitive once again.

Rallying experienced its first full season without Sebastien Loeb, although the Frenchman returned on four occasions to remind us of his talents. His two wins undermined what was otherwise a dominant performance from compatriot, Sebastien Ogier, who raced to victory on nine occasions.

While F1 tries to make its mark in the United States, NASCAR goes from strength to strength. The highlight was Danica Patrick becoming the first woman at the Daytona 500 to secure pole position, although the race was eventually won by Jimmie Johnson who went on to win his sixth title in eight seasons.

On two wheels the highlight was undoubtedly Marc Marquez who became the most successful rookie in history, out-performing, both historically and in real-time, Valentino Rossi.

Bradley Smith, the most successful British rookie in this class in history, was overshadowed by the young Spaniard who took advantage of injuries to his main rivals to build a commanding lead in the championship. However, he did not have it all his own way as disqualification in Australia opened the door to Lorenzo. The Yamaha-rider won the final race but Marquez demonstrated his maturity to finish third and claim the title in front of his home fans.

Unfortunately, as a reminder of the dangers involved with motorsport, the Le Mans 24 Hours witnessed its first fatality since 1997 with the death of Aston Martin driver, Allan Simonsen. The Isle of Man TT also lost Japan’s Yoshinari Matsushita who became the 21st motorcyclist to lose his life at the race this century. The race was eventually won for a remarkable 20th time by veteran John McGuinness.

The past year will be remembered in tennis circles as the year that a Brit finally won an Open at Wimbledon after a 77-year wait. Able to draw on his experience of winning gold at the Olympics the previous year, Andy Murray became the men’s singles champion defeating Novak Djokovic in the final.

However, the season’s plaudits were claimed by Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams. Nadal returned from a serious knee injury to win the French and US Opens to add to five Masters events. The younger of the Williams sisters added to her two majors of 2012 with victories at the same venues as Nadal, taking her Grand Slam total to 17. In addition to Murray, the feel-good victory for the ladies also came at Wimbledon with Marion Bartoli rolling back the years to take the title before retiring on a high-note.

The downside for tennis was positive drug tests for Marin Cilic and Nuria Vives meaning the sport will have to start to address this serious issue.

Cricket headlines have been filled by two Ashes series being played in the same calendar year with the home side dominating in each although Australia has exposed frailties in the England batting first uncovered by New Zealand earlier in the year. The baggy caps’ strong home performance has meant England’s hold over the urn was a matter of months.

The form team of 2013 has to be India. Dhoni’s men completed a whitewash of Australia on home soil before winning the Champion’s Trophy with another perfect record. Their talisman, Sachin Tendulkar, was able to sign-off on his career in style with two innings victories over the West Indies.

The other team to push them close has been South Africa who arguably should have done more to push for what would have been a record-breaking victory in the first Test. That they didn’t was down to a late flurry of wickets and allowed India to stretch their unbeaten record.

At the time of going to press the Proteas defeated India by 10 wickets in the second Test to spoil India’s record and wrap up the two-Test series 1-0. AB de Villiers has been their stand-out run-producer although India’s Kohli has been prolific since the summer although Australia’s Michael Clarke is the only batsman to have passed 1,000 Test runs. Jacques Kallis joined the list of retirees (only from Test cricket), and does so on his terms, unlike England’s Graeme Swann.

South Africa’s Dale Steyn and Vernon Philander have regularly taken wickets although Pakistan’s leading spinner, Saeed Ajmal, has turned matches in both formats of the game.

While India has done well, arguably the greatest team performance has consistently come from the All Blacks who have won every one of its 14 rugby matches this year. This has included away fixtures in Europe where, despite being pushed hard by England and Ireland, they found a way to win.  However, surely their greatest victory was the one in South Africa at Ellis Park. Questions had been raised as to whether the New Zealand squad could withstand the immense physicality of the Springboks at altitude. The answers were provided with an emphatic 38-27 win.

Rugby Union also witnessed the British Lions return to winning ways after 16 years. Having won the first match by two points and lost the second by one, the Lions were supposed to crumble in the decider in Sydney. Yet, despite a massive call to drop Brian O’Driscoll, they returned an outstanding 41-16 scoreline.

The Australians made amends in the Rugby League World Cup lifting the title against their arch rivals, New Zealand, who had surprised them four years before. While England gave the eventual winners a fright in the opening pool match, they were unable to match Sonny Bill Williams in the semi-final. However, Australia certainly had a game-plan easing to a deserved 34-2 victory.

Cycling started the year with Lance Armstrong revealing all to Oprah Winfrey – or not quite as he held back important bargaining chips for the various pending enquiries into the various drug scandals. The superhero of the Olympics, Bradley Wiggins, had a year to forget, allowing his teammate, Chris Froome, to claim the 100th edition of the Tour de France in a determined manner over all terrain that suggests he could feature strongly for many years. In addition he won four other stage races. His most notable performance was the steep climb and summit finish on Mont Ventoux where he slowly broke all his rivals.

Yet even he was eclipsed by the evergreen Marianne Vos. This Dutch phenomenon won her second successive world road race title and won on 20 of the 39 days she raced, finishing in the top three on another nine occasions.