A bad week-end for English sport

What a sad week-end it has been for sport fans all around England. Rugby star Jonny Wilkinson (above, in Trafalgar Square, London) and his team mates first failed to win their second World Cup in a row, Saturday night in Paris. South African players finally lifted the Webb-Ellis trophy after a boring final, with no tries, symbol of a competition locked by strong defenses in its final stage.

England had this afternoon, in Brazil, another opportunity to win a world champion title with its Formula 1 phenomenon Lewis Hamilton. But the 22-year-old McLaren driver faced a gearbox problem and finished 7th despite another beautiful race. What a great F1 season we had, indeed, with three drivers running for the title until the very last Grand prix. Seven points behind Hamilton before the Brazilian final, Kimi Raikkonen unexpectedly won it and offered Ferrari golden perspectives, just one year after Michael Schumacher’s retirement.

This is very cruel to Lewis Hamilton, who has been leading the championship since mid-May, but I can’t help writing those lines with a kind of cynical joy. Englishmen also lose. Et c’est bien fait pour eux.