The Sunday Times May 29, 2022 19
were shortlisted, with the public
invited to vote for their winner.
Rob Burrow, the former Leeds
Rhinos and England rugby league
star, who has inspired millions in his
battle with motor neurone disease,
won a people’s vote for The Sunday
Times Sports Autobiography of the
Year with Too Many Reasons to Live,
defeating among others former
Arsenal footballer Paul Merson and
Lions captain Alun Wyn Jones.SPORTS BOOK AWARDS
The 2022 Sports Book Awards, in
association with The Sunday Times,
took place at the Kia Oval in London
on Thursday night and, perhaps
appropriately, it was a cricketer who
had enjoyed his finest hour as a
player at the ground, who was the
biggest winner.
Michael Holding, the West Indies
fast bowler whose match bowling
figures of 14-149 in the 1976 Test
against England remain one of the
great performances at the venue,
picked up two awards. Holding‘s Why
We Kneel, How We Rise won the
Sunday Times Sports Book of the
Year award, as well as the Pinsent
Masons Sports Book Writing of the
Year award, judged by a panel
including Christine Ohuruogu, the
2008 Olympic gold medallist over
400m, Guillem Balague, the La Liga
BBC correspondent, and Simon
Halliday, who spent six years as
chairman of European Rugby.
Ohuruogu said: “It’s been another
brilliant group of books to read this
year with special mention going to
Mark Synnott’s beautiful book The
Third Pole and Sue Anstiss’s
groundbreaking book Game On.
Michael Holding’s book has received
universal recognition after winning
the William Hill Award and is a much
deserving winner.”
“I cannot really say how delighted
I am to win these awards,” said
Holding. “It just shows that people
believe in the subject of this book.
Hopefully, people will take it on
board and it will do the job that I am
hoping it will — bring everyone
together and have a better world.”
Sunday Times chief sports writer
David Walsh won in the Best SportsNick Greenslade
Holding’s book does the
double at annual awards
domestique Pavel Sivakov led the
peloton with 4km to go, dragging
Carapaz with him.
Hindley, who finished second in
the Giro in 2020, knew that he had to
make a move, pushing on with 2km
to go, with Carapaz struggling to keep
pace. As Covi won his first grand-tour
stage, Hindley, of BORA-hansgrohe,
finished well clear of the 2019
champion to secure an advantage of
one minute and 25 seconds going into
today’s 17.1km time-trial in Verona,
where, barring a disaster, the
Australian can take the title.
“I knew this would be the crucial
stage of the race, with the brutal
finish,” the 26-year-old said. “I knew
if you had the legs you can make a
difference. We stayed patient, and it
is amazing. We could not have timed
it better. When I heard Carapaz was
dropping down, I just went all out.
“We will see how it goes tomorrow,
it is always hard to say how a time-
trial will go.”Hindley has historic Giro title in his sights
CYCLING
1 J Hindley (Aus, BORA-hansgrohe)
.............................................86hr 7min 19sec
2 R Carapaz (Ec, Ineos Grenadiers).....at 1:25
3 M Landa (Sp, Bahrain Victorious)..........1:51
4 V Nibali (It, Astana-Qazaqstan Team) ..7:57
5 P Bilbao (Sp, Bahrain Victorious) .........8:55
6 J Hirt (Cz, Intermarché–Wanty–Gobert
Matériaux) ...............................................9:07
10 H Carthy (GB, EF Education-EasyPost) .17:56LEADING OVERALL STANDINGS
Hindley holds a 1min 25sec lead
Autobiography of the
Ye a r Too Many
Reasons to Live by
Rob Burrow
(Macmillan)
Children’s Sports
Book, in association
with the National
Literacy Trust (joint
winners)
Run Like a Girl by
Danielle Brown
(Button Books)
Striking Out by Ian
Wright, Musa
Okwonga & illustrated
by Benjamin
Wachenje (Scholastic)
The Heartaches’
Cricket Book
Who Only Cricket
Know by David
Woodhouse (Fairfield)
Cycling Book
Desire, Discrimination,
Determination —
Black Champions in
Cycling by Dr Marlon
Moncrieffe (Rapha)
Illustrated Book
Toon In! by Michael
Payne (Vision Sports)Fitzdares
International
Autobiography
Always Believe by
Olivier Giroud with
Dominique Rouch
(Pitch Publishing)
Arbuthnot Latham
Rugby Book, in
association with The
Rugby Union Writers’
Club
The Flying
Prince by
Hugh
Godwin
(Hodder &
Stoughton)
Sports
Entertain-
ment Book
The Champ & The
Chump by James
McNicholas
(Headline)
Sports Performance
Book
Stronger by Poorna
Bell (Bluebird)
Pinsent Masons
Sports Writing Award
Why We Kneel, HowWe Rise by Michael
Holding (Simon and
Schuster)
Football Book, in
association with the
Football Writers’
Association
Barça - The inside
story of the world’s
greatest club, by
Simon Kuper (Short)
Bestselling
Sports Book
You Are a
Champion
by Marcus
Rashford
and Carl
Anka
(Macmillan)
The Sunday
Times Sports Book
of the Year
Why We Kneel, How
We Rise by Michael
Holding (Simon and
Schuster)
The Best Sports Book
of the 21st Century
Seven Deadly Sins by
David Walsh, above
(Simon and Schuster)2022 SPORTS BOOK AWARDS WINNERS
Book of the 21st Century category for
Seven Deadly Sins, his account of his
pursuit of disgraced cyclist Lance
Armstrong. The book was later made
into a film, The Program. Twenty
sports books published this centuryJai Hindley is on the brink of making
history as the first Australian to win
the Giro d’Italia after taking the
Pink Jersey on the 20th and final
mountainous stage, which was won
by the local rider Alessandro Covi.
The Ecuadorian Richard Carapaz,
looking for his second Giro title, held
a slender three-second lead in the
general classification (GC) over
Hindley coming into the 167km
penultimate stage, from Belluno to
Marmolada, with only today’s time-
trial left.
Spain’s Mikel Landa, third on GC,
stayed at the head of the peloton with
his Bahrain Victorious team-mates as
they climbed the Passo Pordoi, the
highest point of this year’s Giro.
With Covi, of UAE Team Emirates,
out in front, Carapaz was looking
comfortable going into the final Passo
Fedaia climb, as the Ineos GrenadiersThat offers an opportunity for us even
when P6 is not the best place to be.”
Light drops of rain started to fall as
the streets reopened and partygoers
started to descend on Rascasse for the
now traditional pre-race Saturday
night at the famous corner.
Conversely, most drivers would
have finished their engineering brief-
ings, had dinner at the track and then
headed to bed, presumably with ear-
plugs to drown out the noise of the
hundreds of parties happening across
town and on the yachts.
Come this morning, the track will
be spotless after a mammoth clean-up
effort, with fans awaiting the home
favourite to see if Leclerc can not only
finish a race in Monaco for the first
time, but also win it.GRID FOR MONACO
GRAND PRIX
Driver Pts
1 Max Verstappen (Neth) 110
2 Charles Leclerc (Mon) 104
3 Sergio Pérez (Mex) 85
4 George Russell (GB) 74
5 Carlos Sainz Jr (Sp) 65
Constructor
1 Red Bull 195
2 Ferrari 169
3 Mercedes 120
4 McLaren 50Driver Team Time
1 Charles Leclerc (Mon) Ferrari 1min 11.376sec
2 Carlos Sainz (Sp) Ferrari 1:11.601
3 Sergio Pérez (Mex) Red Bull 1:11.629
4 Max Verstappen (Neth)Red Bull 1:11.666
5 Lando Norris (GB) McLaren 1:11.849
6 George Russell (GB) Mercedes 1:12.112
7 Fernando Alonso (Sp) Alpine 1:12.247
8 Lewis Hamilton (GB) Mercedes 1:12.560
9 Sebastian Vettel (Ger) Aston Martin 1:12.732
10 Esteban Ocon (Fr) Alpine 1:13.047
11 Yuki Tsunoda (Japan) AlphaTauri 1:12.797
12 Valtteri Bottas (Fin) Alfa Romeo 1:12.909
13 Kevin Magnussen (Den)Haas 1:12.921
14 Daniel Ricciardo (Aus) McLaren 1:12.964
15 Mick Schumacher (Ger)Haas 1:13.081
16 Alexander Albon (Thai)Williams 1:13.611
17 Pierre Gasly (Fr) AlphaTauri 1:13.660
18 Lance Stroll (Can) Aston Martin 1:13.678
19 Nicholas Latifi (Can) Williams 1:14.403
20 Guanyu Zhou (China) Alfa Romeo 1:15.606LEADING CHAMPIONSHIP STANDINGS
Having read Tyrone Mings
(Interview, May 22), I am
assuming he will not go to
the World Cup in Qatar (if
selected) as that country has
a poor reputation for human
rights. I hope to see him
follow the example of John
Taylor, who declined
selection for the 1974 British
& Irish Lions tour to South
Africa because of the
apartheid laws. I look
forward to seeing Mings
stand up for his principlesthe way Taylor did.
PR Wade, Vale of GlamorganGood to see top-class club
rugby on Channel 4 (Quins v
Gloucs, May 21) but the dual
commentary outpaced the
players — every move, every
gap filled with an outpouring
of words. These guys love
the game but, please, leave
some space for the viewer.
John Enos, AyrshireBen Stokes is right to
demand that the prevalence
of stress fractures among
professional cricketers
“really needs looking at from
a workload point of view”
(Sport, May 22). Like trauma
to the head in football and
boxing, it affects the future
livelihoods and health of all
players, and deserves the
same level of research into
causes and prevention.
Bernard Kingston,
BiddendenLETTERS TO
THE EDITOR
Send your letters to:
The Sports Editor,
The Sunday Times,
1 London Bridge St
London, SE1 9GF
email: sportletters
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