Who are the luckiest losers in sport?

http://www.theguardian.com/sport/blog/2014/oct/02/who-are-the-luckiest-losers-in-sport

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They say that the harder you practice, the luckier you get. But sometimes they are wrong. Sometimes the difference between success and failure is nothing more than blind chance. Take the case of Adnan Almntfage, who finished fourth in the 800m race at the Asian Games on Wednesday.

Almntfage was well beaten, but the three runners who finished in front of him were disqualified for obstruction and lane infractions so the gold medal was passed down the line and into his welcoming arms. He was joined on the podium by Teng Haining of China and Jamal Hairane of Qatar, athletes who finished in fifth and sixth place but ended up going home with silver and bronze medals. You can train for a race for your whole life, but if the three men in front of you make such basic errors, you should be thanking your lucky stars rather than your athletic ability.

For a supposed haven of meritocracy, sport has a funny way of awarding failure. Back in 1992, Yugoslavia qualified for the European Championship in style. They scored more goals than any other team in qualifying and were among the favourites to win the trophy. But when the country fell into a civil war, the UN intervened and Fifa decided that their place should go to Denmark. The Danes had nothing to lose. Kim Vilfort, who was to score in the final, later recalled: “We couldn’t fail because there were no expectations. If we lost 5-0 three times then that would not have mattered.” Denmark, of course, did not lose any of their matches 5-0. They were relentlessly solid in defence and ended up winning the competition, beating a Germany team Franz Beckenbauer said could be “unbeatable for years” in the final.

That summer was a spectacular success for John Jensen. He won Euro 1992 with Denmark and his superb goal in the final helped earn him a move to Arsenal. The only problem for Jensen was that his new fans expected to see him lash the ball into the net from 20 yards every week. “I got a shock when I realised what the fans were expecting when I joined,” Jensen later admitted. “The harder I tried to score, the worse it got. Every time I gathered the ball the cry would go up ‘shoot, shoot, shoot’. It was crazy.” Jensen played 132 matches for Arsenal and scored one goal for the club, against QPR, whose fans commemorated his solitary strike with a T-shirt that read: “I was there when Jensen scored”. Would Arsenal have bought Jensen and would he have become one of the Premier League’s cult heroes without that Euro 92 campaign? Almost certainly not.

Altrincham FC also know a thing or two about luck. They should have been relegated from the Conference for three seasons in a row in the 2000s but the promoted clubs that should have taken their place fell into financial difficulties or could not bring their stadium up to the grade required.

In a similar story, Darlington were the lucky club that benefited when Manchester United pulled out of the FA Cup to play in the World Club Championship in 2000. United were lacklustre in the competition, with Gary Neville’s limp backpass summing up their dire performances in Brazil. But Darlington were not too worried. The FA needed a club to take United’s place and their name was pulled out of the hat, so they made their way to Villa Park for a third round Cup tie. “Everyone loves an underdog,” said their excited chairman, George Reynolds, but in the end they lost 2-1. Villa, who escaped a tie against Cup-holders United, went on to reach the final, where luck was not on their side. Sometimes that’s just the way it goes.

Who are the luckiest losers in sport?