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Cape Town - After much debate and head scratching, the Sport24 team have announced their Performers, Plonkers and Pictures of the month for July 2010.
Click HERE to cast your vote - and WIN!
Every month the Sport24 editorial team will announce nominations for a sportsperson or team (people who stole the limelight with a specific performance that month), a plonker (a team or person who has not covered themselves in glory) and a sports photo of the month (the one that makes you go "Ahhh"). You then get a chance to vote for the person, team and picture that best deserves the award...
So without further ado, then, the July nominations are...
PERFORMANCE:
Narrowing down the nominations for the July star of the month proved tricky with several candidates returning performances worthy of recognition.
Louis Oosthuizen
They were dancing in Mossel Bay, and a bit further afield in South Africa, when local lad Oosthuizen – a rank outsider going into the Open – sensationally snared the prestigious Major with a wonderfully controlled effort over the four days. Doing it at tradition-steeped St Andrews was even better!
Jordy Smith
First South African since Shaun Tomson to win an ASP World Tour event … that’s gotta be good. Smith achieved this landmark by seeing off Adam Melling, an Aussie (cause for celebration in itself), in the final to clinch the Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay. It also entrenched the Durbanite’s position at the top of the ASP rankings.
Sifiso Nhlapo
No cigar quite yet, but an incredibly gutsy performance all the same as Nhlapo claimed runner-up honours in the men’s division at the UCI BMX World Championships in Maritzburg at month’s end. Third in 2008, and absent last year as he recovered from a bad neck-break, the Soweto-born rider thoroughly proved his comeback credentials, as he bagged silver behind Latvian Maris Strombergs.
Danny Jordaan
As the CEO of the FIFA World Cup on our soil, Jordaan was always going to be the one to take either the laurels or the flak, depending on the success or otherwise of the event. As it was near-unanimously branded a winner … take a bow, Danny! Now the former anti-apartheid activist is being touted as next head of African football – also, of course, a not-too-trivial challenge …
Hank McGregor
Swollen river, ever-swelling win record for McGregor! The defending champion became the first paddler to win a seventh Berg River Canoe Marathon when he romped to 2010 victory this month at Velddrif, well ahead of the pack. It meant he leapt in front of Robbie Herreveld, who sports six Berg triumphs.
PLONKERS:
And in the not so serious plonker category... Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the biggest plonker of them all?
Bakkies Botha
The start of a broad, on-tour rot for the Springboks, as the fiery lock forward rather crudely head-butted All Blacks scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan soon after the start of the Vodacom Tri-Nations Test in Auckland. Somehow he escaped a yellow card, but it came not long afterwards anyway … and then he was duly cited and banned for nine weeks. Weakest link, goodbye!
SARU
Too clever by half – the national rugby body’s decision to allow crooner Kurt Darren and emigrated netball star Irene van Dyk (these days an unashamedly staunch Kiwi) to do the Springbok jersey handover presentations ahead of Tests on the woeful away leg of the Tri-Nations. There was a predictable public chorus of complaint that prior Bok legends be reinstated as the more suitable guests for the mini-ceremony.
SuperSport
They did it with the Test cricket Down Under, so why can’t SuperSport allow us the option of listening to the “home” commentary feed when the Boks are playing overseas? Even if not necessarily for the whole match, it would be nice to break away from “Matt and Bob” sporadically to hear what the Aussie and Kiwi microphone men are saying. (SuperSport claim it’s not an audio option because the three available streams are completed by Afrikaans and Xhosa commentary.)
Peter de Villiers
The little man with the huge ‘tache has been at it again … opening his mouth a little too ill-advisedly as the Boks’ Tri-Nations away leg crumpled into zero-points disaster. Coach Div sounded off to suggest his side might have to resort to “cheating” to combat apparently biased refereeing, and he was called to SANZAR account for his theory of a “conspiracy” by whistle-men to blow in New Zealand’s favour to stimulate interest in the next World Cup there.
John Smit
A very poor month not only for the normally-popular Springbok captain but also the team he heads up. Smit came under particular fire for his own lack of oomph in the hooker’s position, where a rightful feeling exists that he has not “bulked down” enough after his stint at tighthead to be an explosive presence anew at No 2. Here’s hoping he’s in better nick after a few weeks’ break for the home leg …
PHOTOS:
In a bid to deservedly salute the photographers doing the hard graft on the sidelines. Sport24 have put together a gallery of the "Best of the Best" pictures of the month of July. They're guaranteed to leave you speechless. Click HERE to view our selection of the: Best of the best pictures
Reader voting
Readers monthly votes will decide the 12 finalists in each category, and it is from those 12 finalists that Sport24 will decide their Star, Plonker and Picture of the Year in December.
Click HERE to cast your vote - and WIN!
Every month the Sport24 editorial team will announce nominations for a sportsperson or team (people who stole the limelight with a specific performance that month), a plonker (a team or person who has not covered themselves in glory) and a sports photo of the month (the one that makes you go "Ahhh"). You then get a chance to vote for the person, team and picture that best deserves the award...
So without further ado, then, the July nominations are...
PERFORMANCE:
Narrowing down the nominations for the July star of the month proved tricky with several candidates returning performances worthy of recognition.
Louis Oosthuizen
They were dancing in Mossel Bay, and a bit further afield in South Africa, when local lad Oosthuizen – a rank outsider going into the Open – sensationally snared the prestigious Major with a wonderfully controlled effort over the four days. Doing it at tradition-steeped St Andrews was even better!
Jordy Smith
First South African since Shaun Tomson to win an ASP World Tour event … that’s gotta be good. Smith achieved this landmark by seeing off Adam Melling, an Aussie (cause for celebration in itself), in the final to clinch the Billabong Pro at Jeffreys Bay. It also entrenched the Durbanite’s position at the top of the ASP rankings.
Sifiso Nhlapo
No cigar quite yet, but an incredibly gutsy performance all the same as Nhlapo claimed runner-up honours in the men’s division at the UCI BMX World Championships in Maritzburg at month’s end. Third in 2008, and absent last year as he recovered from a bad neck-break, the Soweto-born rider thoroughly proved his comeback credentials, as he bagged silver behind Latvian Maris Strombergs.
Danny Jordaan
As the CEO of the FIFA World Cup on our soil, Jordaan was always going to be the one to take either the laurels or the flak, depending on the success or otherwise of the event. As it was near-unanimously branded a winner … take a bow, Danny! Now the former anti-apartheid activist is being touted as next head of African football – also, of course, a not-too-trivial challenge …
Hank McGregor
Swollen river, ever-swelling win record for McGregor! The defending champion became the first paddler to win a seventh Berg River Canoe Marathon when he romped to 2010 victory this month at Velddrif, well ahead of the pack. It meant he leapt in front of Robbie Herreveld, who sports six Berg triumphs.
PLONKERS:
And in the not so serious plonker category... Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the biggest plonker of them all?
Bakkies Botha
The start of a broad, on-tour rot for the Springboks, as the fiery lock forward rather crudely head-butted All Blacks scrumhalf Jimmy Cowan soon after the start of the Vodacom Tri-Nations Test in Auckland. Somehow he escaped a yellow card, but it came not long afterwards anyway … and then he was duly cited and banned for nine weeks. Weakest link, goodbye!
SARU
Too clever by half – the national rugby body’s decision to allow crooner Kurt Darren and emigrated netball star Irene van Dyk (these days an unashamedly staunch Kiwi) to do the Springbok jersey handover presentations ahead of Tests on the woeful away leg of the Tri-Nations. There was a predictable public chorus of complaint that prior Bok legends be reinstated as the more suitable guests for the mini-ceremony.
SuperSport
They did it with the Test cricket Down Under, so why can’t SuperSport allow us the option of listening to the “home” commentary feed when the Boks are playing overseas? Even if not necessarily for the whole match, it would be nice to break away from “Matt and Bob” sporadically to hear what the Aussie and Kiwi microphone men are saying. (SuperSport claim it’s not an audio option because the three available streams are completed by Afrikaans and Xhosa commentary.)
Peter de Villiers
The little man with the huge ‘tache has been at it again … opening his mouth a little too ill-advisedly as the Boks’ Tri-Nations away leg crumpled into zero-points disaster. Coach Div sounded off to suggest his side might have to resort to “cheating” to combat apparently biased refereeing, and he was called to SANZAR account for his theory of a “conspiracy” by whistle-men to blow in New Zealand’s favour to stimulate interest in the next World Cup there.
John Smit
A very poor month not only for the normally-popular Springbok captain but also the team he heads up. Smit came under particular fire for his own lack of oomph in the hooker’s position, where a rightful feeling exists that he has not “bulked down” enough after his stint at tighthead to be an explosive presence anew at No 2. Here’s hoping he’s in better nick after a few weeks’ break for the home leg …
PHOTOS:
In a bid to deservedly salute the photographers doing the hard graft on the sidelines. Sport24 have put together a gallery of the "Best of the Best" pictures of the month of July. They're guaranteed to leave you speechless. Click HERE to view our selection of the: Best of the best pictures
Reader voting
Readers monthly votes will decide the 12 finalists in each category, and it is from those 12 finalists that Sport24 will decide their Star, Plonker and Picture of the Year in December.
