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SOAS Spirit | December 2012
Sport Another Year, Two More Titles for Red Bull Will McDonald group of three-time world champions at the close of the F1 season in Interlagos. That list is small enough, but when you bear in mind his record is three from three, it becomes an immense achievement- one that only Juan Fangio and Michael Schumacher have previously achieved. This level of success should undisputedly be enough to elevate Vettel to the top of the current crop of F1 drivers but a small level of doubt still remains. It is a fair question to wonder whether Vettel or Adrian Newey, Red Bull’s talented design chief, is really Sebastian Vettel joined an elite responsible for their ongoing success.
The quality of machinery is always important and F1 is a sport prone to dominance (without even mentioning the 2004 Ferrari/Schumacher combination). Whatever the reasons for his success, it was an impressive recovery drive from Vettel to secure the points needed for the title after a first lap spin. However it wasn’t as impressive as the winning drive from Jenson Button who, once again, proved the master of changeable conditions as even two safety cars could not prevent him from winning by a 20 second margin. The season may have been disappointing for the Brit, but he must have gained immense satisfaction from pipping his departing team-
mate to the most points across their three year partnership (672 to Hamilton’s 657). This brings us nicely to Lewis Hamilton, who signed off his McLaren career in disappointing style after being bundled off in a racing incident with Hulkenberg’s Force India. Next year, he faces a huge challenge in his move away from his childhood team to his new club Mercedes. Though It should be an entertaining season for the fans, with the top drivers competing in teams focused around them; Vettel at Red Bull, Alonso at Ferrari, Button at McLaren, Hamilton at Mercedes and the irrepressible iceman Raikkonen at Lotus♦
Tennis Round-up Will McDonald As most Londoners are tennis to players not drawing
My Sporting Hero Jonathan Craig In the last few years, the sporting degeneration of my childhood hero, Michael Owen, has for me been a little like witnessing, day by day, the steady but undeniable fading of a muchloved family pet. You know deep down the kindest thing is to take the poor bugger to the vet and put it out of its suffering, but delusional devotion to the miserable sod stops you. Friends and onlookers struggle to conceal their concern, wincing at the shaking legs and sad After leaving Liverpool in 2004, the striker enexpression, subtly imploring you to do the sen- joyed progressively less effective spells at Real Madrid, Newcastle, and Manchester United, sible thing, the humane thing. before scraping a contract at Stoke from the The same irrational, misguided devotion oper- bottom of the barrel. Despite credible goalates (pretty much identically) in my continued scoring records for Liverpool and England, Owbelief in Owen (31) as a force in professional en has been consistently dogged by injuries: football. hamstring, metatarsal, knee-ligaments, thigh, My obsessive fandom started in 1998, when the hamstring again, other thigh, abductor muscle, fresh-faced teenage prodigy tore up Argentina’s ankle. The list goes on but you get the picture defence in the last 16 of the World Cup. With and I don’t want to upset myself. The most caslightning pace, mesmeric dribbling ability and ual observer will acknowledge this tragedy of an ice-cool finish, Owen announced his pres- unfulfilled potential, which epitomizes Owens ence on the world stage. More importantly career. though, he announced his presence as my un- Yet the deluded devotion lives in me – I still disputed all-time life hero. believe, against all common sense and all reaNowadays, my undisputed all-time life hero son. I still yearn for Owen’s return to the Engspends most weekends on the bench for Stoke land set-up, in lieu of younger players with City – or else on Match of the Day 2 sofa, doing promising futures and working legs, while others look on, wincing at the sad, irrevocable déhis best Alan Partridge impression. nouement of his footballing life♦
probably aware, we have just had a pretty phenomenal summer of sport. The Olympics have undeniably quietened the doubters and were a huge success for the GB team who were memorably led by Wiggins, Farah, Ennis and the rest. Sadly, it’s now officially over and the ATP World Tour Finals at the O2 reinforced the sense that the long and cold wait till football doesn’t dominate every sports bulletin has begun.
a pension. Then, in September, it finally happened.
Andy Murray stepped up to follow his Olympic success with a win in the US Open to end the UK’s 76 year wait for a major win. For fans of pub quizzes and sporting coincidences (guilty) the tenth of September has to be a special date with Murray’s win coming on the same date as Perry’s 76 years ago. An Olympic Gold won in an emphatic style What a year for Tennis against Federer and a major fans though. The 4 majors win is undeniably a terrific saw 4 winners as momentum year for Murray. flowed back and forth beBut before we get tween the top four. Novak ahead of ourselves and start Djokovic started the year as eying up the number one he left off with an imperious spot, let’s go back to the ATP win in the Australian Open. finals. It wasn’t a beautiful Rafael Nadal reminded us all London finale for Murray, as that despite injuries he is Novak recovered his form still a monster on clay, by and reminded us that it may beating Bjorn Borg’s record still be slim pickings for with a seventh French Open Murray as long as the powertitle at Roland Garros. Wim- ful Serb is around. This, at bledon, eternally disappoint- 25 and exactly a week younging for British fans, saw er than Andy, could be a Federer silence those of us while ♦ that thought he should’ve hung up his racket and left