Innholdsfortegnelse for January 2016 i Inside Sport

MAYBE IT’S OUR sporting streak, but we love our trophies in here. Robert Drane scored another one (he’s seriously lost count) at last month’s Australian Sports Commission Media Awards for Best Profile for his piece on Ahmed Saad back in our May edition. It was (again) terrific recognition for Bob, as we know him in here, who also edits our sister publication Inside Cricket. But typically (he’s a humble fella) there he was in his speech deflecting all the praise on Saad himself, the AFL star drummed out of the game for two years for sipping the wrong type of sports drink on game day. This is a bloke who doesn’t even touch alcohol, let alone dope! But in the highly charged atmosphere after the “blackest day in sport”, the…

1 How many rugby union games did Sam Burgess play for Bath before agreeing to come back to the NRL: 13, 18 or 21? 2 How many Fed Cups has the Czech Republic won in the last five years? 3 What is the most popular spectator sport in Latvia, Lithuania and the Philippines, but no others? 4 Who was the first woman to officially train a Melbourne Cup winner? 5 What is the name of the trophy that the Australian and New Zealand Test cricketers play for? 6 In the world of American professional sports, what unusual event happened on November 1 this year? 7 Which three teams had two Top Ten picks in this year’s AFL National Draft? 8 Which college basketball team does Australian Ben Simmons play for?…

HE IS THE wing wizard who shone brightly in the A-League for just two years before heading to make his name in Europe. Now Awer Mabil wants to help Australia qualify for the Olympics and he could become the Socceroos’ secret weapon come the 2018 World Cup in Russia. WHAT’S HIS STORY? There are few rags to riches stories like Awer Mabil’s in Australian sport; from South Sudanese refugee to A-League star. Mabil was born in Kenya to parents fleeing the war in their native Sudan, the conflict that claimed the life of his father. Awer was raised in a refugee camp where he was first introduced to football at the age of five. Bottles in socks were used as balls until the age of ten, when he arrived in…

The Australian Olympic Committee is targeting a top-five finish at Rio 2016 after slipping to tenth on the medal table at London 2012. In this Olympic cycle, it has invested broadly and bravely in a team culture of success across the 28 sports and 306 events of the Games. But if it’s medals we’re ultimately chasing, specifically, gold medals, is the strategy stretched and flawed from the offset? Would it not have been time and money better spent to concentrate on the top-tier talent that will arrive in Rio with realistic gold medal ambitions? The record book provides a tangible target for Australia to achieve a top-five finish. No Olympic team has ever won 15 gold medals and not finished in the top five at the end of a Games.…

NATHAN LYON, GOAT. Not as in scape, but the all-upper case kind. Not some afterthought turner, included to give the attack some vague notion of “variety”. Not a stopgap to be replaced at the first hint of a positional upgrade. Not even a yeah-he’spretty-good member of the Test side. GOAT. Greatest Of All Time. When Lyon knocked over West Indian opener Kraigg Brathwaite’s off stump in the Jamaica Test last June, he’d done something no other Australian off-spin bowler ever had – take 142 Test wickets. Lyon had surpassed the heretofore most prolific finger spinner to wear the baggy green, Hugh Trumble, whose mark of 141 in 32 matches had endured since 1904. Outside the circle of history buffs and stat geeks, Lyon’s feat came as a surprise. Forget breaking…

• Attempted murder, you think. Death. And on the tennis court of all places – where you felt most loved, most at home. The hurt that started with the cold hard steel that was thrust into your back has scarred you mind. It is a scar that will never be closed – an anger that will never be suppressed. Perhaps you will contain it publicly ... “She walks to a different drum,” says Martina Navratilova. “But then, the world number-one is not your average person.” Especially not someone whose idols are Madonna and flamboyant tennis great of the ’20s, Suzanne Lenglen. Stars need no rhyme or reason. They just need a stage. A stabbed Monica Seles is now a superstar beyond tennis – particularly if she plays, and wins, again.…

JUMPING THE SHARK I get that Mick Fanning couldn’t get a spot in your Top Ten Aussie Worldbeaters – as a longtime reader with a keen interest in who makes the year-end selection, I’ve noticed that our surfing champions usually miss out because the season finishes too late for the list's deadline. But even if Fanning were to get pipped for the title at Pipeline, he’s had a magnificent year, the equal to any of his three previous championship wins. To be honest, Fanning deserves more than sporting recognition for his accomplishments in 2015. I have always thought the Australian of the Year award should go to the person found doing the most Australian thing. And here we had a bloke called Mick, who surfs for a living, punching a…

CRICKET Still-new opening bat Joe Burns (pictured) tells a neat story of how he made his debut in the baggy green last summer. He was in Sydney to play a T20 game when he got the call that he was in the side for the Melbourne Test, so he went directly to Melbourne. As he was also retained for Sydney, the Queenslander wasn’t able to return home for a month – and he had only packed to be away for the night of that T20. ”I was very trendy for a few weeks,” he quipped. It’s time again for our end-of-year/start-of-year cricketing observances, with the second Australia vs West Indies Test (from Dec 26) at the MCG and the third Australia vs West Indies Test (from Jan 3) at the…

DANIEL KOWALSKI’S polite and downright philosophical take on the unfortunate timing of his swimming heyday is admirable. “I consider myself very lucky to have had people like Glen Housman and Kieren Perkins to chase,” he told IS for this interview, impressing us immensely. “When I started swimming was when Housman burst onto the scene and unofficially broke the world record, and then Kieren closely followed.” What a guy, hey? But this magazine has been around long enough to know it couldn’t have been all fun for him. Heck, why couldn’t those blokes have waited another decade to time their arrivals? Ah, finally; there it is, the athlete’s voice we wanted: “I feel very lucky to have been a part of that. But you know, I couldn’t even go to the…

CASUAL CRICKET Off The Pitch is an Australian brand built on a passion for the game of cricket. They have produced Australia’s first line of casual cricket gear. All their clothing is made from organic cotton, which means you’re wearing a product that is fashionable, good for the environment and will last the test of time. Off The Pitch is a place where you can purchase uniquely designed clothing and merchandise for both yourself and as a gift for your cricket-loving friends and family. Pictured here is “The Hoodie”. RRP $79.95. Visit www.o›hepitch.com.au to find out more. FUTURE OF FOOTWEAR With only 60,000 pairs available worldwide, the limited-edition MetaRun – Asics’ best-ever long-distance running shoe – gives runners an exclusive opportunity to experience the brand’s cutting-edge footwear technologies. Among them…

WINNER The upcoming Olympic year will bring a bit more (but, alas, not enough) attention to women’s sport, but the end of 2015 has been notable for how female athletes seized the sporting narrative beyond the conventional channels. Indeed, jockey Michelle Payne’s “get stuffed” speech in the aftermath of her Melbourne Cup victory should stand as the manifesto for this women-in-sport moment – not just little girls or ladies in the pretty sporting boxes that have been deemed “acceptable” for them, but at-times difficult women engaged in full-on, visceral sports that they pursue because, well, they want to. Think what you want about UFC, but the idea that two bouts involving female fighters could be held in front of a full stadium in Melbourne and hold the attention of a…

AUSTRALIA’S LATEST WORLDBEATERS Mark Webber (above, right) may have been denied a world championship during his 12 years driving in Formula One, but he can finally call himself a world champion after taking out the World Endurance Championship driver’s crown. He shared the title with his Porsche co-drivers, New Zealander Brendon Hartley and German Timo Bernhard. It was a successful comeback of sorts for the 39-year-old Australian, who drove in this category of racing prior to making the jump into F1. It was also a comeback for Porsche, who only returned to the sports car world championship last year. Their win ended arch-rival Audi’s long domination of LMP1 prototype sports car racing, but they did it the hard way, coming fifth in the Six Hours of Bahrain sports car endurance…

The pot grows at the Australian Open – the total prize money doled out at the year’s first Grand Slam event has swelled to $44 million. The nation will once again embrace its fortnight at the centre of the sport’s universe, rather than its usual tennis-related preoccupation of fussing about the outre behaviour of its top young players. One Australian player not so young, Lleyton Hewitt, takes a bow at this tournament, which will hopefully bring his accomplished career into perspective. SAFE BET Somewhat overlooked amid Serena Williams’ bid for the Grand Slam was that Novak Djokovic technically had a better year: each won three, but Djokovic lost in the final of his other, Williams in the semi. And while Serena closed up shop post-US Open to guest-edit magazines and…

Jason Day’s widowed mother, Dening, sold the family home and borrowed money from relatives to put her son into a boarding school with a golf program to save him from teenage alcoholism, and worse. Nick Kyrgios’ mother, Nill, branded his critics “sheep” and “moaners” after his Montreal disgrace. You could hardly serve up a bigger contrast between Australia’s new bad boy and its new sporting hero. Just days after the Kyrgios melodrama in Montreal, Day won the PGA Championship at Whistling Straits in Wisconsin for his first major. Here was a champion that “Australia could be proud of” in the Pat Rafter template. Day’s performance, a record 20-under par, and victory speech had Aussies swelling with pride at the gracious winner with an inspiring back story. Day won his next…

SO YOU DON’T have a boat to barrack for in this year’s Sydney To Hobart? Here’s a suggestion: Perpetual Loyal. This is the 100-foot super-maxi that each year invites a batch of elite sportspeople to take the plunge and race as crew. Since their first tilt in 2009, they’ve raised around $3 million for children’s hospital charities through the Loyal Foundation. The boat is owned by Sydney-based accountant-to-the-stars Anthony Bell. They’ve won it once, in 2011, out-manoeuvring Wild Oats XI in a ding-dong stoush up the Derwent. But how do you train up a crew of elite landlubbing athletes to take on the iconic 628 nautical mile race and, at the very least, not get in the way? You appoint “Black” Joe Akacich as general manager of the boat, that’s…

as good as it gets a keeper worth considering ho-hum in the bin ENGLISH FOOTBALL IN THE MODERN ERA BY JON REEVES, NEW HOLLAND, $49.99 English football has deep roots, but the Premier League is a decidedly recent phenomenon. If the two are indeed synonymous, then “modern” time is recorded from 1992, when England’s top division began its ascent from the parochial concern it was by the 1980s. The EPL has become the symbol of football’s contemporary currents, but this detailed, season-by-season account of the premiership’s first 24 seasons (with the aid of the UK’s Shoot mag) paints a picture of a league with a dual character – a showcase for global football that sells itself as a familiar English tradition. The familiar beats are covered: Man Utd’s glory years,…

I am 50-effing-plus years old, Doc. And I still dream about balls. It is the same dream I have had since I was about five. I am somewhere unfamiliar – a barn, or an abandoned house, or trudging through bushland. Lo and behold, there is a ball on the ground! Unclaimed! What the? How lucky am I? It is variously a tennis ball, or a golf ball, or a rosy red six-stitcher ... I light up and pocket it. Then I spot another. How awesome is this! And another ...Then I find a nest of them, and I run out of pockets. Now I am struggling to carry them ... My hands and arms are full, and as I bend down to try to pick another one up, I begin…