POSTED: Friday December 24th 2010
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
HENIN SERVES UP A COMEBACK TO REMEMBER IN FIGHT FOR SECOND LAUREUS AWARD
• World’s media to vote for six Nominees in Laureus Comeback category • Tyson Gay closes the gap with long-time rival Bolt in 2010 fight-back
• Grand Prix victory following a broken leg gives Rossi a Nomination hope
• Laureus World Sports Awards to be held in Abu Dhabi on February 7
LONDON, December 21, 2010 - After 16 months of retirement, Belgium’s Justine Henin made her return to tennis in January 2010 and within three weeks had reached the final of a Grand Slam championship at the Australian Open in Melbourne. Though she lost in three sets to Serena Williams, it was just four months later in May that she won the Porsche Grand Prix to make the top 20 in the world rankings. She also won the Unicef Open in June, beating Andrea Petkovic to take her 43rd career title.
Henin, who was the winner of the Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year Award three years ago, is now a strong contender for Nomination for the 2011 Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award.
The Laureus World Sports Awards, which recognise sporting achievement during 2010, are the premier honours on the international sporting calendar.
The names of the six Nominees for the Laureus World Comeback of the Year Award, as voted by the Laureus Media Selection Panel, will be announced in early January.
The eventual winner will then be chosen from that list of Nominees by the Laureus World Sports Academy, the ultimate sports jury, made up of 46 of the greatest sportsmen and sportswomen of all time, and will be unveiled during a televised Awards Ceremony in Abu Dhabi on Monday, February 7.
Among the other contenders are American sprinter Tyson Gay, who re-emerged as a serious challenger to Olympic and World champion Usain Bolt in 2010. Gay beat Bolt in the 100 metres at the DN Galan meeting in Stockholm, recording a time of 9.84 secs to Bolt's 9.97 - only the second time Bolt had lost a 100 metres final. Gay won the London Grand Prix in 9.78 secs and his victory in Brussels earned him the first Diamond Race trophy for the 100 metres.
After surgery for a torn hamstring in 2009, Sweden’s Carolina Kluft, the world’s greatest heptathlete, came back to action at the European Championship and reached the final of the long jump. Kluft finished 11th and said "it feels like a big victory: one year ago I was walking on crutches.” Between 2001 and 2007, Kluft won 19 successive heptathlon competitions, including the 2004 Olympics and three World Championship gold medals.
At 50, former Jamaican sprinter Merlene Ottey ran in the 4x100 metres relay for Slovenia at the European Championships in Barcelona, becoming the oldest ever woman to compete in a major athletics championship. She crossed the line last but one, racing down the home straight of the stadium where she had won an Olympic bronze medal 18 years earlier. She said: “It was right up there with all the medals I have won. It never crossed my mind at 40 that I would still be running now.”
Italian motor cycle ace Valentino Rossi, whose season was disrupted by a broken leg in June, returned to the track in just 41 days, and three months later won the MotoGP race at Sepang in Malaysia. Rossi, first in all time 500cc/MotoGP race wins with 79 and second in overall wins with 105 to Giacomo Agostini, had suffered a compound fracture of his right leg at Mugello. It was the first time Rossi had missed a race in his Grand Prix career.
Paula Creamer’s victory in the US Women’s Open at Oakmont in July was her first major championship win and she achieved it after coming back from surgery on her left thumb to repair torn ligaments in March. She had made just three starts before the US Open and was never regarded as a potential winner. She is not expected to be fully fit until next year.
The 2011 Laureus World Sports Awards is returning to Abu Dhabi thanks to the support of Aabar Investments PJS, who will once again be Host Partner for the event. His Excellency Khadem Al Qubaisi, Chairman of Aabar, said: "The Laureus World Sports Awards is a unique event. It was magnificent, a great success for Abu Dhabi when it was held here last March. The whole event was really superb. We will certainly try to do something special when we bring the Awards back next year."
Last year, double Oscar-winning Hollywood star Kevin Spacey hosted a glittering Awards Ceremony attended by leading sportsmen and women from around the world. Also in the audience at a packed auditorium at the Emirates Palace were Oscar-winning actress Gwyneth Paltrow, British film stars Hugh Grant and Clive Owen and American actors Kyle MacLachlan and Michelle Rodriguez.
Among the names of the winners of the 2010 Laureus World Sports Awards announced in Abu Dhabi last March were Usain Bolt, Serena Williams, Jenson Button, Kim Clijsters, Natalie du Toit and Stephanie Gilmore.
Abu Dhabi, the capital city of the United Arab Emirates, offers a fascinating combination of the old and the new; a blend of Arabic hospitality and mystique where a mixture of culture and tradition come together against a backdrop of the most modern world-class infrastructure. Abu Dhabi is developing a reputation as a great sporting venue as host city for the FIFA Club World Cup, the Abu Dhabi Formula One Grand Prix and the Abu Dhabi Golf Championship, all highlights of the sporting calendar in the city.
Aabar Investments PJS is an investment company headquartered in Abu Dhabi. It invests in various sectors including aerospace, real estate, automotive and financial services. Its largest stakeholder is the International Petroleum Investment Company, which is wholly owned by the Government of the Emirate of Abu Dhabi.
Proceeds from the Laureus World Sports Awards directly benefit and underpin the work of the Laureus Sport for Good Foundation which supports almost 80 community sports projects around the world which have helped to improve the lives of more than one million young people.
There is a two-part voting process to find the winners of the Laureus World Sports Awards. Firstly, a Selection Panel of the world’s leading sports editors, writers and broadcasters from over 150 countries votes to create a shortlist of six nominations in various categories including Laureus World Sportsman of the Year, Laureus World Sportswoman of the Year, Laureus World Team of the Year, Laureus World Breakthrough of the Year and Laureus World Comeback of the Year. Then the members of the Laureus World Sports Academy vote by secret ballot to select the Award winners.
The Laureus Academy Members also vote for the Laureus World Sportsperson of the Year with a Disability and the Laureus World Action Sportsperson of the Year, the Nominations for which are made by specialist panels.
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Keywords · Justine Henin · Tennis · Grand Prix · Laureus World Sports Awards
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