in the immortal words of the old swansea city’s victory in the first 200 metres freestyle at the world short
Conservative prime Minister harold division was another notable soccer course championships and 10k world
MacMillan, “You’ve never had it so success, while the remarkable ryan giggs open water championships – and it is
good”. That is certainly a sentiment picked up a second european champions easy to see why 2008 is shaping up to be
that currently resonates with welsh league winners medal and a 10th rather special.
sports fans following a remarkable premiership title with manchester united
first six months to 2008. as he overtook sir bobby charlton’s you could even include ian woosnam’s
appearance record for the red devils. first strokeplay title for 11 years at the
but the big question is will this year go polish seniors open, but surely the coup
down in the history books as the greatest then there was the abergavenny jockey de grace of 2008 was Joe calzaghe’s
of all-time for our small country? it has sam thomas’ thrilling victory in the victory in las vegas over bernard
been good – in fact, very good so far and cheltenham gold cup to applaud – the hopkins.
there is every likeliehood of it improving first Welsh winner since 1960 – and a
further with the beijing olympic games second world team pursuit title for if winning the ring’s world light
on the horizon. cardiff cyclist geraint heavyweight title against the american
thomas as part of the legend was all that we have come to
there is little doubt that 2008 is british quartet. expect from britain’s greatest ever
a major candidate for the title of boxer, it was the way in which he went
wales’ greatest sporting year, throw in three about his business which proved
but before we get too carried silver medals from he is a cut above the rest of
away with some wonderful swimming ace the boxing world. once he
achievements, and a couple of david davies had dusted himself down
near misses, let’s take stock of in the first from the shock of that
what has gone before. surely part of the year first round knock-down,
there are some other golden – 1500 metres he dominated the rest of
years to rival what has at the european the fight to add another
happened so far. championships, 4 x
There is no scientific way
to calculate the answer,
no magic formula that
can determine with any
degree of certainty
which year is better
than the other. but it
is fun trying to come to
some form of conclusion.
Before stepping back in time, let’s first
take stock of what has brought a smile to
our faces to date this year. on the team
front, there was that quite unexpected
grand slam from ryan Jones’ wales team
in the six nations.
given what had happened in the rugby
world cup only a few months earlier
it was a dramatic reversal of fortunes
that delivered a 10th grand slam in 100
years. even more startling was cardiff
City’s march to their third FA Cup final.
the bluebirds had last gone to wembley
for an FA Cup final in 1927, when they
won the cup, and it was a miraculous
achievement by dave Jones’ men to reach
the final as a Championship club. If losing
1-0 to portsmouth was a disappointment
it hardly dented the glory of reaching
Wembley for the first time in 81 years.
sportingwales
junetwothousand&eight
53165-p06.pdf
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