Welcome To The Golden Age of Spanish Sport

The German Grand Prix winner, Tour De France winner, World Cup Final goalscorer and Wimbledon tennis champion, what do they all have in common? They are Spanish and they are Winners.


The Spainsh football team won the World Cup for the first time in their history after Andreas Iniesta scored the only goal of the final in extra time. Spain were given the tag of being 'perennial underachievers' however after winning the World Cup to add to their European Championship success in 2008 that tag has dissapeared and has now been given to England.


Rafael Nadal the tennis player began this golden age when at the age of 19 he won the French Open grand slam and has since won four more along with one Australian Open and two Wimbledon's along with an Olympic gold medal in mens singles tennis at Beijing. After winning his second Wimbledon title this year Nadal became the World No.1 ranked tennis player.


In the same year Nadal won his first French Open another Spainard became a world champion in Formula One. Fernando Alonso became world champion in 2005 driving for the Renault F1 team making him the youngest drivers champion in the history of Formula One at 24 years and 58 days. Alonso then became a double world champion as he defended his drivers championship the following year.


After the success of Fernando Alonso in Formula One came another Spainard who brought success on two wheels rather then four. Alberto Contador the road bicycle racer won the Tour de France in 2007 for the first time. He was unable to defend his crown the following year when another Spainard, Carlos Sastre won. However Contador came back and won it again in 2009 and again this year.


Even in Basketball Spain can say they have a champion. Pau Gasol is a Spanish basketball player playing in the USA for the Los Angeles Lakers who have won back-to-back NBA Championships in 2009 and this year.


With Spain producing all these successful sportsmen it makes you wonder when the success will stop coming. With these sportsmen still around there will still be success coming in the direction of Spain for quite a few more years yet.

800 and out for Murali

Muttiah Muralitharan retired from test cricket after taking 800 wickets for Sri Lanka with his last wicket coming from his final delivery in test cricket against India.


His figures are amazing having taken 800 wickets in 133 test matches which includes 5 wicket hauls on 67 occasioins and 10 wicket hauls on 22 occasions. Shane Warne, the former australian leg-spinner is second on the all time test wicket takers with 708 wickets in 145 test matches.


During his career Muralitharan has courted controversy about his bowling action and some even said that he was cheating and called him a 'chucker'. However it was proven using technology that there was nothing wrong with his bowling action and wickets kept on coming for the off-spinner.


As Murali bows out of test cricket he will be remembered as one of the nicest men in cricket who played the game with a smile on his face. A unique performer with a one-of-a-kind bowling action that will never be seen again. There will never be another Murali, because nobody bowls likes Murali.

Avatar sales prove 3D may not be the future

Avatar, the movie which broke box office records in 3D has also broken DVD and Blu-ray sales in 2D.
The 3D fantasy adventure movie directed by James Cameron broke became the most successful movie ever by collecting $2.7 billion worldwide beating Titanic which was also directed by James Cameron.

However when it was released in 2D on DVD and Blu-ray in North America it became the fastest selling home entertainment release of all time selling 6.7 million DVDs and Blu-rays in four days of which four million are DVDs and 2.7 million are Blu-rays. The sales brought in $130m beating the previous record holder in the USA and Canada which was The Dark Knight. Avatar has also broken the UK Blu-ray sales record by selling 222,824 copies on Monday 26th April which is more than the previous record holder The Dark Knight sold in its first week.

With the high number of sales of Avatar on DVD and Blu-ray in 2D this shows that 3D may not be the future in watching movies. Cameron however has confirmed that Avatar will be re-released in cinemas in 3D on August 27, 2010 which will include eight extra minutes of footage. We will have to wait and see whether these extra eight minutes of footage will bring back the 3D viewers or that 3D may not be the future of watching movies.