Algarve Cup: Wales 1-0 Mexico

Wales’s women have got their first win of the annual Algarve Cup thanks to a 1-0 triumph over Mexico this evening.

Jess Fishlock’s strike from outside the penalty area after just 12 minutes proved to be enough as Wales put an opening-day 2-0 defeat to hosts Portugal behind them.

Groups A and B are reserved for the top teams, which include the likes of Germany, Japan and the USA, currently the world’s top three ranked teams.

The teams in Group C – which also includes Hungary – battle it out for seventh to 12th places. Wales won Group C in last year’s Algarve Cup.

This evening’s win was an excellent scalp for Wales, who are ranked 39th. Mexico are 15 places ahead of them in 24th.

Farewell to a legend as Esther Vergeer retires

Has there ever been a better sportsperson than Esther Vergeer? The Dutch wheelchair tennis player, who is unbeaten in 470 matches dating back to January 2013, today announced her retirement from the sport at the age of 31.

I first came across Vergeer while I was covering the Paralympics in the summer. At London 2012, she won her fourth consecutive gold medal in the singles, winning all six matches in straight sets and allowing her opponents to win just seven games between them all tournament.

She has won an incredible 21 major singles titles since her first such success at the 2004 Australian Open. Wheelchair tennis only has three annual major tournaments: Wimbledon has doubles events but not singles (in any case, she won three ladies’ doubles events at SW12 between 2009 and 2011).

Her career record was 687 wins from 712 matches, a winning record of more than 96 per cent.

Vergeer has also been number one in the world for what is surely an unprecedented (in any sport) 14 consecutive years.

And she seems pretty cool as well:

“I think as an athlete it’s probably one of the best compliments you can get, if somebody gets inspired by you to go and play sports, or to get a better life or to change their lives. And so I feel proud that I’m in that position.”

UPDATE: Jahangir Khan, of Pakistan, won 555 consecutive squash games in the 1980s. Which leads nicely into a forthcoming post…

Baby steps but still progress for netball coverage

BBC Radio 5 Live Sports Extra is a fantastic radio station, bringing a whole range of sports to a British (and world) audience.

And it is good to see it will tonight bring the second in the three-match netball series between England and world number one Australia live to listeners.

As the excellent Sport on the Box blog reports:

BBC Radio 5 live Sports Extra brings full commentary of the series to listeners, marking the first time that the sport – the world’s biggest in terms of women’s participation – has been covered live on UK radio.

The live commentary forms part of BBC Radio 5 live and sports extra’s ongoing commitment to showcase more women’s sport and minority sports.

Katharine Merry will lead the coverage from Bath and London, with Jennie Gow presenting from Birmingham, with expert input from former England International Tracey Neville for all three matches.

5 Live SX had live commentary from the first match in the series on Sunday in Bath – won by England – and will do so again this Saturday for the finale in Birmingham.

But although the games are also being shown on Sky Sports, there is still some way to go until the sport is given the same kind of coverage as in Australia and New Zealand. I was struck when I was there that sports shops stock merchandise for teams in the semi-professional ANZ Championship.

As the chief executive of Welsh netball Mike Fatkin alludes to, it’s all a little bit strange for a sport which is so popular in schools but which has struggled to gain any coverage at international, or even club, level. Is it because it is a predominantly women’s sport? Unfortunately, perhaps that’s it.

The Harbaughs: the latest great sporting siblings

The Baltimore Ravens’ upset win over the New England Patriots in Massachusetts on Sunday night not only allowed Baltimore head coach John Harbaugh to exact revenge for a painful loss there at the same stage last season.

Baltimore Ravens head coach John Harbaugh. Photo: Flickr, Keith Allison

San Francisco 49ers head coach Jim Harbaugh. Photo: Flickr, Football Schedule

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It also meant he would take his side to arguably the biggest game in sport – the Super Bowl. Their opponents? The San Francisco 49ers, coached by a certain Jim Harbaugh.

For the Harbaugh brothers’ parents (continuing the alliterative theme, their names are Jack and Jackie), this squabble, in what has already been dubbed the “HarBowl”, could be hard to contain.

But it is hardly the first time siblings have lined up against each other on the biggest stage of all:

Venus and Serena Williams

It must be hard to be upstaged by your younger sibling, but that is what Venus, herself a legend of the sport, has had to endure. Serena, younger by a year and three months, has won 15 grand slams to her sister’s seven, and has triumphed in six of their eight encounters in grand slam finals. But they get on well enough as perhaps the most successful doubles pairing of all time, adding a third Olympic gold to their collection at London 2012.

Alistair and Jonathan Brownlee

The sight of the Yorkshire brothers sharing the top step of the London 2012 triathlon podium warmed the hearts of Team GB fans, after a hard-fought triathlon in which Alistair, the elder brother, won gold, with Jonathan claiming bronze (after collapsing at the finish, much to his brother’s obvious dismay) behind Javier Gomez of Spain.

Jonny was then crowned world triathlon champion in New Zealand in October, although Ali was unable to take part.

Vitali and Wladimir Klitschko

When Wladimir, the younger by nearly five years, beat Britain’s David Haye in July 2011, it ensured the Ukrainian brothers held all four major belts – those of the IBF, WBA, WBC and WBO – between them. Vitali is often regarded as a better fighter than Wladimir, but the theories will not be substantiated: the brothers have vowed never to fight one another.

Others

To be honest, these were pretty much the first three pairs of siblings who came into my head when thinking about sporting success. Since, I’ve thought of a few more who might deserve a paragraph or two of their own:

Steve and Mark Waugh

Michael and Ralf Schumacher

Peyton and Eli Manning

Bobby and Jack Charlton

Rory and Tony Underwood

Mauro and Mirco Bergamasco?

Gavin and Scott Hastings??

BBC Sports Personality of the Year: vote David Weir

The importance, or otherwise, of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year, is up for debate, particularly in a year of almost unprecedented British sporting success.

But I might as well make my pick. I think Alastair Cook is unlucky to miss out on a place in the shortlist of 12, although his big achievement was after the shortlist was announced. Having said that, though, I would have to choose an Olympian or Paralympian, which rules out Rory McIlroy.

Mo Farah and Jess Ennis have rightly been lauded for their remarkable success in August, but I am more inclined to someone who hasn’t been in the media spotlight all year anyway. For that somewhat illogical reason, two of the favourites, Bradley Wiggins and Andy Murray, are also ruled out of getting my vote.

I would hate to belittle the incredible success of Sir Chris Hoy, Ellie Simmonds and Ben Ainslie, but they have already had so much success their golds this time almost feel like par for the course. Nicola Adams is a real personality, true, but I don’t reckon she deserves the nod above the rest of the competition.

So my top three would be:

• 3rd: Katherine Grainger – a stalwart of British rowing for years, and one who had got so close before but never quite managed Olympic gold. This year she finally changed that.
• 2nd: Sarah Storey – a five-time Paralympic swimming gold medallist, she added four more cycling golds to her two from Beijing in London. She cantered to victory in all of her races over the various distances, making all of her events look almost embarrassingly easy
• 1st: David Weir – not just because he was the only one of the 12 I saw win over the summer, for two of his four gold medals in four events, in distances ranging from 800m to the marathon. He won the marathon despite confessing to feeling exhausted early on and visibly fading during the first lap or two. And most of all, perhaps Weir was the single athlete who allowed the British public to get as engaged with the Paralympics as much as they did with the Olympics (people were talking about him on the Tube in the same way they were Farah and Ennis).

London 2012 Olympics: Top five moments – Christine Ohuruogu

Christine Ohuruogu won Great Britain’s only athletics gold at Beijing 2008 and was, at that stage, thought to be one of the hosts’ best chances of more glory in the stadium a short walk from where she grew up.

But the 400m runner suffered injury problems, and her chances of being the face of the Games swiftly evaporated following the continued success of Jess Ennis and Mo Farah.

In the 2011 World Athletics championships in Daegu, Ennis won silver in the heptathlon; Farah took home a gold (5,000m) and a silver (10,000m). But Ohuruogu was disqualified in her heat, an ignominious exit for the reigning Olympic champion.

In many ways, Ohuruogu became a forgotten face of London 2012.

But she produced a typical late burst to power to silver in a race won by the American Sanya Richards-Ross to get on the podium against the odds.

It was a brave, battling performance but one which – perhaps inevitably after her Beijing gold – she felt disappointed by. Her tears on the podium initially appeared to be those of joy at having won a medal at the home Games she once feared she would miss out on.

But she later revealed they were tears of disappointment, and that she was heartbroken not to have successfully defended her title.