The seven sporting wonders of drama-filled 2024 from brilliant Keely and Luke Littler-mania to Manchester misery

FROM heartache in Berlin to golden glory in Paris, from the retirement of Andy Murray to the emergence of Luke ‘The Nuke’ Littler, it was another monumental year for British sport.

Manchester’s football clubs experienced ridiculous highs and lows,  Tyson Fury was dethroned and Joe Root was elevated to all-time greatness.

It was a year of raging controversy, breathtaking excitement and extraordinary drama.

With a Ryder Cup, Ashes series and Lions tour, 2025 promises to be every bit as thrilling.

Here, Chief Sports Writer Dave Kidd takes us through seven sporting wonders of 2024.

England fall at final hurdle

IT was the last great highlight of Gareth Southgate’s era — and the fact it seems destined to be largely forgotten is testimony to the soaring expectations of the last eight years.

Before Southgate took the Three Lions job in 2016, it would have been impossible to imagine England scoring a 90th-minute winner in a major semi-final without that moment going down in folklore.

That is what Ollie Watkins achieved in Dortmund to defeat Holland as England won a second successive Euros semi.

The fact England lost the final 2-1 to Spain prompted Southgate’s resignation and meant Watkins’ winner will be little more than a footnote — along with Jude Bellingham’s extraordinary late bicycle-kick equaliser against Slovakia and the penalty shootout victory over the Swiss in the quarter-finals.

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England were largely poor at the Euros – in performance terms,  it was the worst of their four tournaments under Southgate.

But his record of two Euros finals defeats, along with World Cup semi-finals and quarter-finals, is outstanding.

Thomas Tuchel was a controversial choice to replace Southgate in  2025.

The German is tasked with winning the World Cup in America the following year but he will do extremely well to surpass Sir Gareth’s exploits.

Manchester misery

IT was the year when Manchester turned to Madchester, when both sides of England’s premier footballing city experienced extraordinary highs and crushing lows.

For City, an unprecedented fourth consecutive Premier League crown – the most dominant run in the 135-year history of English football – was followed by an incredible meltdown featuring just one win and nine defeats in 13 matches.

They played all year under the shadow of Premier League charges amounting to 130 breaches of financial rules, which City strenuously deny.

City’s bid to win a second straight Double was derailed by United.

Their neighbours reached Wembley by way of two epics, a 4-3 quarter-final classic against Liverpool and a shootout victory over  Coventry, when they surrendered a three-goal lead and would have lost but for a VAR offside call late in extra time.

But beating City in the final would have a disastrous result for the  Old Trafford club as it meant they handed Erik ten Hag a new deal.

Sir Jim Ratcliffe’s first year at the United helm would be defined by that decision. 

The Dutchman was given a major say over transfers, yet he’d be sacked nine games into the next top-flight season with United languishing in 14th place.

The arrival of Ruben Amorim, the hottest young Portuguese boss since Jose Mourinho was special, brought hope.

But it also led to the departure of sporting director Dan Ashworth, who’d opposed the move.

It is difficult to imagine a more dramatic year for both Manchester clubs, on and off the field.

Keely wins hearts in Paris

THE Paris Olympics were a treat — a great sporting variety show on a largely sun-drenched fortnight.

An event to savour after the misery of a behind-closed-doors, Covid-ridden affair in Tokyo three years earlier.

For Team GB, there were more near-misses than ultimate glory – a gold-medal count of 14 saw them drop to seventh in the table but there were silvers and bronzes to burn.

Keely Hodgkinson lit up a  magnificent athletics meet – the Lancastrian golden girl achieving 800 metres glory on the same night  Sweden’s Armand Duplantis set a new world pole vault record.

There were thrilling British golds from a sludge-stained Alex Yee in a triathlon which had been delayed due to Seine pollution, and for Tom Pidcock in the mountain biking.

New stars were crowned, including teenage climber Toby Roberts and Bryony Page, a trampolinist who wants a future career in the circus.

This being the Olympics, there were controversies too.

British equestrian great Charlotte Dujardin quit in shame after a video emerged of her repeatedly whipping a horse in training.

Then worldwide culture wars raged over two female boxers from Algeria and Taiwan who won gold despite failing gender tests at the previous year’s World Championships.

But from Noah Lyles, crowned the fastest man on Earth in the 100m final, to Simone Biles, the undisputed queen of the gym, there were heroics to savour, too.

Luke the Nuke

THERE is nothing quite like a teenage sporting phenomenon to set the pulses racing.

From Emma Raducanu to Wayne Rooney, precocious talent promises the Earth.

So step forward the unlikeliest of heroes – Luke Littler, a 16-year-old from Warrington who had us doubting his birth certificate in more ways than one.

This bearded bear of a boy stunned Ally Pally last year by reaching the World Darts final before his 17th birthday – the youngest player ever to do so.

Littler hammered ex-world champs Raymond van Barneveld and Rob Cross on his way to a 7-4 defeat by Luke Humphries in the final.

And while the World Darts Championship, with its heavy drinking and Mr Benn-ing, had already become a hugely popular festive event, Littlermania has elevated it to a whole new level.

Last year’s Ally Pally heroics were no flash in the pan as Littler racked up more than £1million in prize money and secured the Premier League and Grand Slam titles on his maiden outings.

He aims to go one better after reaching tonight’s quarter-finals.

Usyk tops the world

WE saw the first undisputed world heavyweight champion of the century crowned and – despite so much British domination of the division – it wasn’t a Brit.

Oleksandr Usyk owned the boxing year, twice outpointing Tyson Fury in Riyadh having already had a pair of victories over Anthony Joshua.

Fury and Joshua look like busted flushes at elite level and any future meeting between the two would no longer hold its former lustre.

As the Saudi boxing stranglehold continued, Daniel Dubois demolished Joshua at Wembley – after the Saudi national anthem was played in honour of their paymasters.

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Dubois, 27, is now Britain’s leading heavyweight hope but has already been knocked out by Usyk.

Dynamite Dan confirmed himself as IBF world champ by obliterating Joshua, after Usyk was stripped of that belt – as in boxing, undisputed can never mean undisputed for long.

Outside of the Usyk-Fury clashes, the fight which garnered most fascination was a farcical one between 58-year-old Mike Tyson and  YouTuber Jake Paul. God help us all.

Bazball revolution

WHILE England’s Bazball experiment continued to veer from the sublime to the ridiculous, one man stood tall and consistent — Joe Root, who confirmed himself as the greatest English batsman of all time.

The Yorkshireman hit six Test centuries in 2024, including a personal-best 262 during a ludicrous win over Pakistan in Multan – in which he surpassed Alastair Cook’s English record of 12,472 Test runs.

That landmark was reached in a record-breaking First Test victory.

The Bazballers conceded a first-innings total of 556 and yet won by an innings after Root and triple-centurion Harry Brook achieved the highest partnership in England’s history.

That England would lose that series 2-1, including a battering in the decider, typified the extreme highs and lows of the cavalier approach preached by coach Brendon ‘Baz’ McCullum.

In the summer, Root had already surpassed Cook’s record for Test centuries by an Englishman when he notched his 34th  in a series win over Sri Lanka.

Root stands fifth on the all-time Test run-scoring list and by the end of 2025, he will surely stand second only to Sachin Tendulkar.

Next winter brings the ultimate challenge for Root and Ben Stokes’ team – the mission to regain The Ashes on Australian soil, where England’s finest player is yet to score a Test century.

Murray bows out

ALL great things must come to an end and finally – 5 and a half years after Australian Open organisers had prematurely announced it – Sir Andy Murray retired.

Reaching the quarter-finals of the men’s doubles at the Paris Olympics, alongside Dan Evans, was the final swansong for the man who ended a 77-year wait for a British men’s Wimbledon singles champion.

In all, Murray won two Wimbledons, a US Open, two Olympic golds and inspired a historic Davis Cup triumph for Britain.

Had he not been born into the same era as Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal and Roger Federer, he would doubtless have won many more accolades.

That run in Paris typified Murray’s career – a series of late-night finishes which put the nation through the wringer and made him both a hero and villain to those working to tight newspaper deadlines.

Aussie Open chiefs had sent him on his way in January 2019 with a retirement video and tributes from a line-up of legends – only for Murray to play on for half a decade with a metal hip.

And while he didn’t add to his list of Majors during those latter years, the uncommon grit he showed, while raging against the dying light, was his trademark.

But soon after Murray bowed out, Jack Draper confirmed himself as the next great hope for British men’s tennis by reaching the semi-finals of the US Open.