VOTE: Sport360 Sportsman of 2014

Sport360 staff 06:22 21/12/2014
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    • Simply the best: Who out of Lewis Hamilton, Rory McIlroy, Cristiano Ronaldo, Novak Djokovic and Michael Clarke is your International Sportsman of the year?

    Most goals scored, most majors won, most wickets taken: There are many factors that can make a sportsman great. Have your say as to who should be crowned Sport360’s International Sportsman of the Year from our shortlist of nominees using #360awards.

    – VOTE: Sport360’s Regional Sportsman 2014
    – VOTE: Sport360’s Regional Sportswoman 2014
    – VOTE: Sport360’s International Sportswoman 2014
    – VOTE: Sport360’s International Team 2014

    LEWIS HAMILTON

    British racing driver Lewis Hamilton won the Italian, Singapore, Japanese, Russian and United States Grands Prix to achieve five consecutive victories for the first time in his career. His 10th win of the season was also the 32nd of his career, the most any British driver has achieved, and he added one more to that when clinching the title on the final day of the season.

    The Mercedes racer became the world champion for a second time after winning a high-pressure Abu Dhabi Grand Prix, beating team mate Nico Rosberg by 67 points. In winning the F1 world championship, Hamilton scored 384 points via. 11 wins from 19 starts. 

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    CRISTIANO RONALDO

     This year, the Portugese maestro set another new record by becoming the first player to score 16 goals in a single Champions League/European Cup season. Ronaldo finished the season with 31 goals in 30 league games, winning the Pichichi as the top goalscorer in Spain, and shared the European Golden Shoe with Liverpool striker Luis Suárez.

    The man from Madeira won LFP Best goal, the Champions League, Copa Del Rey and UEFA Super Cup. Fittingly, Ronaldo won the 2013–14 UEFA Best Player in Europe Award after leading Madrid to La Decima, scoring in the final and cementing his status as one of the greatest players ever to have played the game. 

    RORY McILROY

    Northern Irish golfer Rory McIlroy won the 2014 Open Championship at Royal Liverpool by two strokes over Rickie Fowler and Sergio García to capture the third major championship of his career, and joined Tiger Woods as the only golfers to win both The Silver Medal  (awarded to Best Amateur) and The Gold Medal at the British Major. In winning the Open, McIlroy became the first European to win three different majors, and now stands alongside Jack Nicklaus and Tiger Woods as one of three golfers since the first Masters tournament in 1934 to win three majors by the age of 25.

    McIlroy was not done there, though, winning his first World Golf Championship shortly after The Open and then adding his fourth major title – a second USPGA Championship crown – after beating Phil Mickelson by a shot at Valhala. That triumph drew McIlroy level with greats including Bobby Locke and Ernie Else on four majors and few would bet against him joining Seve Ballesteros and Mickelson on five major wins in 2015. 

    NOVAK DJOKOVIC

    Charismatic tennis player Novak Djokovic began the year with a victory over Roger Federer in the final of the BNP Paribas Open title and has soared from there onwards. The Serbian beat then world No. 1 Rafael Nadal in the final of the 2014 Sony Open Tennis in straight sets, which set up his third win in Rome after another victory over the Spaniard.

    Nadal gained revenge over Djokovic in the final of the 2014 French Open final in four sets but at Wimbledon, Djokovic defeated Federer in the final in five sets and subsequently replaced Nadal as the world No. 1. He then won the Paris Bercy masters title without losing a single set and was awarded the World Tour Finals trophy after Federer withdrew before the final in London.

    MICHAEL CLARKE

    Australian cricket captain Michael Clarke led Australia to a 5–0 whitewash of England in the 2013–14 Ashes series to secure the urn and one of the most important trophies in Australian sport.

    The magnitude of his acheivements are, however, not only measured by success on paper. The fact that Clarke’s achievements as captain have come amid career-threatening injuries, the Australian public asking for his retirement and more recently the death of his close friend Phil Hughes makes him an outstanding sportsman in 2014.

    AND THE NEARLY MEN…: Kumar Sangakkara, Roger Federer, Manuel Neuer, Marc Marquez, Thomas Muller, Lionel Messi, Arjen Robben, Sam Burgess, Virat Kohli, Julian Savea, Chad le Clos, David Warner

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