November 18, 2006

Gold Tweddle hs to be top choice

By Brian Reade
Mirror

IF there's any justice out there, this year's BBC Sports Personality of The Year will be Beth Tweddle.

She's the Liverpool student who has battled horrendous odds to win Britain's first-ever gymnastic gold medal on the asymmetric bars. After winning the European one.

With little money and support, the 21-year-old who has pushed herself so hard she's had countless operations to remove bits of bone from her feet, somehow managed to beat the state-backed robots from China, Eastern Europe and America, giving hope and inspiration to ordinary girls in a sport we ignore to the point of contempt.

Hers is undoubtedly the top sporting achievement of the year. But I'll bet you this. That a nation of cap-doffing sycophants and celebrity worshippers will put the gymnast who suffers lonely, gruelling six-hour training schedules, six-days a week in a Toxteth sports centre behind the Queen's grand-daughter.

Someone who, since birth, has had the finest horses, trainers and facilities in the world at her Gatcombe Park disposal. An elitist on an elite horse in an elitist sport.