iSport.in Top Ten Sporting Moments of 2009 are here! Did you have a list of your own? Compare it with what we've compiled. Here's to a great sporting year in "Twenty10"
10. Jenson Button wins F1 drivers title.
Jenson Button won his first ever Formula1 Drivers World Championship in 2009. While many say that it might just be his last, we would beg to differ.
Jenson had the perfect start to his title bid in 2009, where he clinched 6 consecutive Grand Prix wins to grab an early and a possibly unassailable lead in Drivers points tally. Jenson did lead the championship tables all through the season, though the season was full of ups and downs. His championship seemed much in doubt when the Red Bull drivers launched an attack on the much-fading Brawns mid-season. However, Jenson did well to hold onto his lead and manage to clinch the title with one race to spare.
While there were many who believed that Jenson wasn’t a worthy champion, we’d like to believe that it was a classic championship winning drive by the Brit. He didn’t add to his early season tally of 6 wins, but that’s what we at iSport call – ‘Winning the race, at the slowest possible pace!’ Kudos Jenson!
9. India wins Nehru Cup
The most watched tournament in Indian Football is the Nehru Cup and it is always a delight for the home team to win it. The team has undergone a transition under Englishman Bob Houghton and it showed in the resilient defending and creative attacking on the pitch.
The match lived up to its expectation as the hosts played Syria in their second consecutive final. There is nothing like a good fight back and both the teams were determined to do so. In the end, it would be penalties to decide the winner and India won the match 5-4 on penalties, sending the nation into raptures.
8. Valentino Rossi wins 9th world title in motorcycle racing
30 years old, yet good enough to lay eggs, basis an Old Italian saying that a old chicken is good for soup but not to lay eggs. That was the message sent out by Valentino Rossi to the fellow riders when he won his 9th World Championship at Malaysia this year, adding one more to his signature championship winning celebrations.
Only the second rider yet to have won in all classes but the only rider to have won in 500cc, 990cc and 800cc class till now. With one title each in 125cc and 250cc and seven in premier class (500/990/800), only the second rider to have won more than 100 races, Valentino Rossi doesn’t seem to show any signs of aging or stopping in near future.
7. Messi awarded as the FIFA World Player of the year 2009
One of the youngest players on the field and certainly one of the shortest in height Lionel Messi plays for the Argentinean National team and Barcelona FC, though his short height should not be considered his weakness; he has scored 58 goals in 38 appearances for Barcelona FC in 2008-09 and assisted in 18, scored another 23 in just 16 appearances in 2009-10 till now and the season is just half way through.
No wonder he was awarded the FIFA World Player of the Year 2009!
The interesting part is he has received 1,073 votes the next closest in contention is Cristiano Ronaldo received only 352 votes.
All votes were casted by captains and head coaches of mens and womens national teams. Other players selected by jury were Xavi (196 votes), Kaka (190 votes) and Iniesta (134 votes).
6. Federer equals Sampras’s record of grand slams
The elusive French Open followed by his 15th Grand Slam defeating a very determined Roddick, Roger Federer returned to his best in 2009. His main rival Rafael Nadal had a rather mediocre injury prone 52 weeks and the Swiss made full use of this opportunity. However, the mother of upsets came about when a certain Del Potro defeated the Master and denied what could have been the latter’s sixth consecutive US Open.
Irrespective of which Federer finished the year back at the Number One spot. With the Australian Open round the corner a lot of fan expectations are riding on this Great’s shoulders already. He has nothing to prove to anyone but will want to supersede his own standards and expectations even more so in 2010.
5. Brawn GP wins in debut season
Ross Brawn has this knack of creating history and how! As the end of 2008 neared, Honda believed that the end to their F1 pursuits neared too. After much contemplation, they pulled the plug on their F1 operations. While many believed that this would mean one less team on the grid in 2009, Ross Brawn made a bold move in grabbing ownership of the team and re-named it to Brawn Grand Prix.
The team went from zero to hero in just a span of a month, when they scored their first victory on debut in Australia. The victory was sweeter considering the fact that they had funding and ownership issues just a month prior to the start of the season. The newborn team not only notched up 7 consecutive wins at the start of the season, but also managed to clinch the Formula1 Constructors Championship by the end of the season.
While the team did benefit from the early use of the double-deck diffuser it did loose out to competition while nearing the end of the season. All said and done, Brawn GP etched their name in the history books as the first team ever to clinch both the World titles in their debut F1 season.
4. Manchester United win the EPL for the 3rd time in a row
Manchester United completed a second hat-trick of titles after ousting Liverpool by 4 points on the last day of the season. It was also the last season for Cristiano Ronaldo, who departed for a world record 80 million pounds the following summer.
The turning point of the season is sure to be the last minute goal from 17 year old Federico Macheda against Aston Villa. Giggs found the youngster unmarked on the edge of the box and on receiving the ball he brilliantly turned and curled a goal into the net. The result was 3-2 to United and is considered to propel them to the championship.
3. Barcelona wins 6 cups in 2009
Barcelona FC under their new manager Josep Guardiola together created history in 2009 in Spanish football!
This year they were the first club in Spain to win treble of La Liga, Copa del Ray and the UEFA Champions League.
This is an achievement which seemed difficult without their famous trio of Ronaldinho, Etto and Deco.
They have won 2008-09 Spanish League, 2008-09 Champions League, 2008-09 Copa del Rey, 2009 Spanish Supercup, 2009 UEFA Supercup and the 2009 FIFA Club World Cup!
FIFA Club World Cup was one trophy which Barca had never won, something that was also achieved by the team against Argentinean club Estudiantes. The winning goal was scored by non other than Lionel Messi on the 110th minute.
Josep Guardiola who is a former Spanish football player, spent most of his career in Barcelona FC as a mid-fielder and was chosen as the manger in 2008 after Frank Rijkaard. He won all the cups possible in his first year itself as a manager!
Guardiola and Barcelona players together have created magic in the last one year.
2. Sachin scores a total of 17,000 runs
Sachin Tendulkar scored an outstanding 17,000 runs at the 5th ODI against Austrailia in Hyderabad this year. The 'Master-Blaster' made this record-breaking milestone in 435 ODI's! Cricket has been his religion ever since his youth and he's followed it like no other! Getting kudos from stalwarts in cricket like Pakistan's Miandad, India's Gavaskar aka 'Sunny' and even Australian Ricky Ponting were all praises for Tendulkar! Congratulations Sachin! Here's to more world records and centuries! Team iSport wishes you the very best!
1. Usain Bolt breaks his own 100m record
The Jamacain sprinter proved to be a lightning bolt at the 2008 Beijing Olympics and earned the Gold Medal with a new world record of 9.69 seconds (9.683 to be precise) in the 100m sprint. He won the Gold in 200m sprint as well, setting a new world record yet again of 19.30 seconds.
Experts say had he not started celebrating before he crossed the finish line at the 100m Beijing Olympics race, Bolt could had shaved off a 10th of a second!
Bolt proved them right by breaking his own record of 100m at the World Championships of Athletes held in Berlin, Germany in August 2009. This time with he took just 9.58 seconds, which is his personal best and the current world record too. He broke his own 200m record as well by taking out a 1/10th of a second, his final time was 19.19 seconds. He now holds the World Record and Olympic Record for men’s 100m and 200m sprint.
We have seen the men’s 100m record being broken time and again but 22 years old Usain Bolt has taken the human ability to a different level, and that is why he deserves the top spot on the iSport.in top 10 sporting moments of 2009.
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