Zara Phillips wins SPOTY

[the_guru]

http://uk.news.yahoo.com/10122006/344/zara-canters-coveted-bbc-trophy.html

Just like Mummy

 

[barbarasson]

a few crucial differences.......

 

[EX_STAB]

She has had a good deal of success in her own right so well done to her. None of the nominees had anything like the amazing record of success of this man

Of course he couldn't be allowed to win, he's a shooter!

 

[FEASG]

Good for Her

 

[Pillager]

I personally thought she was "amazing"

 

[gennithmedic]

Beth Tweedle and Nicole Cooke won REAL sports, open to all. Beth should be given sports ACHIEVER of the year. Zara is lovely, but has been spoon fed her prize. Golf is NOT a sport

 

[Henry_Tombs]

I was a little sceptical that the Sunday Times did a piece on Zara Phillips today along with a full page Land Rover advert.
Don't get me wrong I think she is a bit of a honey, but did the article help her in anyway tonight?

Which reminds me, I missed the first part of the awards, did Mike Gault the pistol shooter win anything, was he interviewed?

 

[Gremlin]

Beth Tweedle and Nicole Cooke won REAL sports, open to all. Beth should be given sports ACHIEVER of the year. Zara is lovely, but has been spoon fed her prize. Golf is NOT a sport

Try eventing for yourself at that level and then make a judgement,
you are spouting tosh.

 

[vandyke]

Beth Tweedle and Nicole Cooke won REAL sports, open to all. Beth should be given sports ACHIEVER of the year. Zara is lovely, but has been spoon fed her prize. Golf is NOT a sport

Zara has had to work extremely hard to achieve the successes that she has had.

Well done to her, she deserves it.

 

[drain_sniffer]

Joe Calzhagie has been a world champion for 9 Years, and still doesnt get in the top 3!!!

Thats what happens when you let people have a say!

 

[Rapier]

Good for her. She not only has to work hard on herself, but has to make sure the horse stays fit and peaks at the right time too. And only one of three to hold European and World titles at the same time. Brilliant.

 

[Ned_Seagoon]

Well done Zara. She earned the award in her own right as a sportsman. No amount of patronage (Royal or other) is a substitute for the talent, commitment and sheer hard work that this young lady has given to the sport. She has brought kudos to the UK through her performance both as an individual and as a team-member. Her award does not discredit the performance of the other fine sportsmen who were contenders.

 

[Ned_Seagoon]

Can I quote you there!![/quote]

Be my guest Wija. I utterly refuse to descend to the PC’ism of sportsperson and as SPOTY is open to both male and female I stand by the established English usage of sportsman. I find personality equally trite.!

Ned.

 

[Cutaway]

Beth Tweedle and Nicole Cooke won REAL sports, open to all. Beth should be given sports ACHIEVER of the year. Zara is lovely, but has been spoon fed her prize. Golf is NOT a sport

Utter nonsense !
She got it because of a Masonic conpiracy, and you know it.

 

[the_guru]

Fair play to her. It is good to see a winner from a so called non mainstream sport. And at least she was able to string a sentence together for her acceptance speech. She won it through hard work and talent. Not because her spouse died. Hard I know, but if Darren Clarkes wife was still alive, he wouldn't have been in the frame.

 

[bt80]

I am with Guru on this one. Darren Clarke would not have been singled out were it not for his wife, tragic though it is.

Eventing takes a bucketload of skill, hard work and courage (I suppose cash as well if one wants to be vulgar) - well done Zara Phillips although Joe Calzhagie should have been near the top!

 

[Cuddles]

I am with Guru on this one. Darren Clarke would not have been singled out were it not for his wife, tragic though it is.

Eventing takes a bucketload of skill, hard work and courage (I suppose cash as well if one wants to be vulgar) - well done Zara Phillips although Joe Calzhagie should have been near the top!

Of course Darren Clarke was singled out - he managed to regain his place in an elite sport despite the tragic loss of his wife! If he hadn't actually achieved anything then naturally he wouldn't have featured but he did, in the worst of circumstances so fair play.

As for eventing, it is probably one of the hardest sports because it combines physical hardness and massive discipline for the rider with the technicalk challenge of bringing on a horse and controlling it, as if you have become a centaur! Well deserved award and very appropriate that a British SPOTY comes from a sport involving animals...we love our little ponies and doggies don't we?

Well done Zara, tell Mike he still has a free window clean that he bought at Ollie Barkley's charity thrash to collect!

 

[the_guru]

Well as a bike fan, I can see the skill and courage needed to ride a big beast of a horse.

Plus she has got a fair set of Dirty Pillows.

 

[redinjun]

It doesn't matter how much cash you've got or what privileges you do or do not have bestowed upon you, unless you have the minerals to put yourself just on the edge of being out of control, money is NOT going to win you titles. To achieve this AND with enough skill to be both european and world champion in the same year, IMHO is worthy of recognition.

Well done and congratulations Zara.

I mean, have you SEEN the size of eventing cross-country jumps? Sod that for a laugh!!!!

 

[Steven]

All this chipping about how this or that player who won X amount of prizes/championships has sod all to do with this.
Remember that this award is not for the best sports player of the year but for the PERSONALITY who happens to play sport.

If the winner happens to have done well at a particular sport then that is a bonus but not the actual reasoning behind who wins.