After watching another very poor and unfulfilling golf major this week with that unknown Asian bloke beating Tiger, I was thinking of the most unexpected winners in sport. Here is a few that I can think of off hand.
1. Steven Bradbury in the 500m speed skating at the Winter Olympics. Scraped into the semis where he was ecstatic to be and watched basically the whole field fall down and scrape himself into the final. Bradbury lurked out the back, again just elated to be in a final and again watched the whole field fall on the last turn an rolled over the line as the last man standing to take the Gold.
2. Australia Vs Sth Africa 2003 World Cup Semi. Sth Africa were cruising to an easy win with Lance Klusener belting everything and needing 10 off the last over. 2 crushing fours off the 1st 2 balls made it a forgone conclusion, 2 off 4 balls. next ball Allan Donald should have been run out which surely meant Australia were gone. Next ball Klusener basically hit and run and Allan Donald forgot how to run and was run out at the strikers end handing Australia a very unlikely win.
3. Greg Normans famous collapse at the US Open back in the 90's. Norman was killing it leading by 6 in the last round when he lost his mind and starting playing like a hacker at the local Golf Course. Ended up losing b y about 4 strokes to Faldo.
4. The Paul Carridge fiasco. With Parra leading the unlosable semi final against the Bulldogs (see earlier post about Carridge for more details) they blew a 18-2 lead with 20 to go to lose in extra time and end Paul Carridges career. This was in an era where points weren't scored quickly.
That is a start let me know your favourite memories of great sporting upsets and improbable wins.
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Tipping golf is so farcical. It is absolutely impossible.
ReplyDeleteGreat topic PAWD. It reminds me of the 1991 Rugby World Cup when the Wallabies were down and out in a quarter final against the Irish in Dublin thanks to a try right on fulltime to one of the Paddy's. My old man and I basically called it a night (at 3am) disgusted that the Aussies had bowed out so early in the WC and had kept us up all night in doing so. Thankfully it was before the time of the remote control, so between picking himself up off the couch and to the tv to physically switch it off, an Irish drop ball of the restart gave the Wallabies possession and before you know it my old man and I were jumping around hugging and carrying on like a couple of pooftas celebrating one of the alltime great escapes in Australian sport thanks to a Michael Lynagh try out wide.
As PAWD stated earlier, this same occurence happened some 8 years later during the Cricket WC semi tie/win over South Africa. Amazing never say die results
If you're talking about unbelieveable upsets, i think Ruddock knocking out Tyson was right near the top. Also, the Fatty-coached Queensland team during the Super League war which had all of the good Queenslanders banned beating NSW was ridiculous. Giants beating undefeated Patriots in the Superbowl a couple years ago was a HUGE upset too.
ReplyDeleteGiants over Patriots was huge, Knights comeback in 97 GF, Storm comeback in 99 GF, 99 WC Cricket SF Aussies Vs SA, Panthers comeback win over Wests Tigers in 01 at Penrith Park, Titans win at 11-1 over the Roosters with 12 top line players out last season, Socceroos run in 06 WC, England winning in the 05 Ashes.
ReplyDeleteGreat thread.
DiD I say Ruddock? I meant Buster Douglas KO of Tyson. Also, I'd appreciate it Brock if you didn't mention the '05 Ashes. I still think one of the great boilovers and over-achievments was ABs team in 87 winning the cricket world cup
ReplyDeleteI know its a sour point the 05 Ashes but it was a massive upset. I also think Joey Chestnut winning the 2009 Hot Dog eating contest was a major upset.
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