Phil Dalhausser and Todd Rogers’ long winning streak in the FIVB Beach Volleyball finally came to an end last week…
An amazing run stretching back 40 matches to their last defeat at the hands of Clemens Doppler and Matthias Mellitzer on July 30 last year was only ended by Brazilians Alison Cerutti and Emanuel Rego. We celebrate 10 other stunning runs of straight victories from world sport, and here are the first five.
Play Misty for me
Impressive though the partnership of Dalhausser and Rogers has been lately, they have a little way to go to match American colleagues from the women’s game Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh. The pair racked up a stunning 112 consecutive wins across 19 tournaments in a one-year period between August 2007 and August 2008, including the defence in Beijing of their Beach Volleyball Olympic gold medal won at the 2004 Athens Games. Fortunately after their first defeat in over a year, May-Treanor still had her appearances on US reality show Dancing With the Stars to occupy her.
Going the distance
The fact that Mexican boxer Julio César Chávez won six world titles in three weight divisions is impressive enough, but the fact that he not only remained undefeated from his pro debut and victory against Andres Felix in February 1980 until 1993 but also won 87 times in succession is truly remarkable. The draw with Pernell Whitaker that ended this fabulous run was in fact followed by two more wins, meaning his ‘undefeated’ record stretched to 90 before Frankie Randell finally ended it in 1994, dumping Chávez on the canvas for the first time in his career in round 11. And just three months later, Chávez wrested the WBC Super Lightweight title back from Randell… He continued to box until 2005 at the age of 43, and ended his career with a record of 107 wins, two draws and just six defeats from his 115 fights.
Senthil Prabu S
Rain on Australia’s victory parade
The men wearing Baggy Greens might have looked a little off-colour lately (ie not green), but Australian cricket does have a pretty firm grip on the record books when it comes to consecutive wins. The Test side thrashed Zimbabwe by 10 wickets in October 1999 and then won another 15 times in a row, eventually losing to India in March 2001. They equalled the feat with 16 consecutive wins between December 2005 and January 2008. A narrow seven-run victory over England in early 2003 saw a five-month, 25-match winning run in one-day internationals, and in the World Cup, the Aussies have been in imperious form, not failing to win in a massive 25 games between 1999 and this year’s tournament, where rain washed out their group match versus Sri Lanka and there was no result. But this broke the trend, and they then lost to India in the quarter-finals…
Meet the Invincibles
When Arsenal manager Arsène Wenger suggested his English Premier League charges could go the whole 2002–3 season unbeaten, he was wrong, as they soon lost to Everton (to a wonder goal from a 16-year-old kid named Wayne Rooney). But that assertion had only come from the Gunners’ manager after a record run of straight Premier League wins – 14 – had been achieved on the first day of the 2002–3 season. The winning run came to an end the very next week with a 2–2 draw with West Ham United, but in 2003–4, Arsenal did indeed go a whole season unbeaten. Meanwhile in Scotland, Celtic won 25 straight matches in 2003–4. More recently, German Bundesliga giants Bayern Munich managed 15 consecutive wins in 2005–6, Italy’s Serie A side Internazionale took 17 straight victories in 2006–7 and Barcelona and their irrepressible star player Lionel Messi bossed last year’s La Liga in Spain, collecting the three points 16 games on the trot.
Everyone’s a winner
Such are the complexities (and the number of matches) in league ice hockey that EC KAC’s remarkable form in last year’s Erste Bank Eishockey Liga – a record 17 straight victories for the Klagenfurt team between October and December 2010 – ultimately went unrewarded. The title went to Austrian rivals EC Red Bull Salzburg, who beat the 2009 defending champions in the best-of-seven play-off quarter-finals, then bossed the semis and the final to boot. Some wins are better than others…
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