Planet Sport

As the last Planet Sport programme of 2017 we’re looking back over the past year with two of our reporters, Liam Flint and Tom Ellis, to review some of the sporting highlights from the past twelve months. We look back at the English Premier League, the Fifa Under 17s World Cup and the World Athletics Championships and hear from some of the sportsmen and women who made the news, including the USA's world triple jump champion, Christian Taylor.

In the first part of our Review of the Year, Planet Sport Africa correspondent Solomon Ashoms in Johannesburg and former English Premier League football referee Bob Hamer in UK look back on their personal three highlights from 2017. Bob's selections all come from football while Solomon's choice includes athletics, football and American football.

For seven years between 1991 and 1998 Katya Antoniuk was the Belarus cross-country skiing champion. She regularly competed across Europe and won several cross-country skiing marathons. Then, in 1998, she fulfilled a lifetime ambition when she took part in the Winter Olympics, at Nagano in Japan where she finished 42nd among a tough field of competitors in the women’s 15 kilometres. Katya talks about her skiing career and about her journey to faith from a background of atheism to becoming a follower of Jesus Christ.

British powerlifter Arthur White won 9 national titles, 6 European titles and 4 world titles over a 30-year career. Last time we heard how he lost his marriage and successful business following an addiction to cocaine before a drugs counsellor introduced him to Jesus Christ. This time Arthur tells us how his new faith transformed his life, how his marriage was restored and how he discovered a new love for his sport.

For three decades Londoner Arthur White was one of the world's top powerlifters. Over his career he won 9 British titles, 6 European titles and 4 world titles, and he won the Open World Championship twice. Away from the sport he ran a successful business and was happily married until, in his own words, his sport became an addiction and he lost everything as he spiralled downwards into a life of drugs and violence. But the story doesn't end there as Arthur's life was transformed following a meeting with a drugs counsellor who introduced him to Jesus Christ. Today Arthur travels the world sharing his story about the transformation that Jesus has made in his life and how his love for his sport grew even more since becoming a follower of Jesus. Part 1 of 2.

This week we catch up with reigning Olympic long jump champion Tianna Bartoletta from the USA to find out how she first got into the sport and what she is doing today to encourage and inspire a new generation of young athletes. We also talk to British 100 metres hurdler and 2013 World Championship bronze medallist Tiffany Porter about her sport, ambition and faith.

Two seasons ago Crystal palace goalkeeper Julian Speroni might have thought his career was over. After over 350 appearances for the club he lost his first-team place and endured two years sitting on the bench. But now, at the age of 38, the popular player who has won the club's Player of the Year award four times, has forced his way back into the team and last month helped Palace record their first win of the season, a 2-1 victory over reigning champions, Chelsea. Speroni talks to us about his career, the challenges of being a goalkeeper, and about the difference that his faith as a follower of Jesus Christ makes to his life.

At the London Games in 2012 Nijel Amos won Botswana's first ever Olympic medal when he won silver in the 800 metres. In August he came 5th in his event at the World Championships in London. Nijel tells us what it meant to win his country's first Olympic medals and about his faith and hopes for the future. 400 metres runner Baboloki Thebe has his sights set on winning Botswana's second Olympic medal in Tokyo in 2020. At the age of just 20 he is already the African Champion and he came 4th in 400m final at this year's World Championships. He talks to us about his faith, his hopes and dreams and his love for running.

Stanley Kebenei representing the USA came 5th in the 3000m steeplechase at this year's World Athletics Championships in London. Stanley tells us about his love for the sport and about the qualities needed to become a top steeplechaser. Unlike the USA, Ghana has never won a gold medal at the Olympics. Emmanuel Dasor is a 200m and 400m runner who is aiming to break that duck. He talks to us about his hopes and dreams and the faith that directs his life.

In August Kori Carter from the United States was crowned world champion in the women's 400 metres hurdles at the World Athletics Championships in London. She talks to us about her win, how she started on her athletics career and about the impact of her faith on her life and sport. At the 2016 Olympics in Rio the United States won 46 gold medals but, by contrast, the West African nation of Ghana has never won an Olympic gold medal. We talk to Bawah Fuseini, Secretary General of the Ghana Athletics Association to find out what steps the country is taking to turn this situation around.

South African cricketer JP Duminy has represented the Proteas in all three formats of the game since his debut in a One Day International against Sri Lanka in 2004. At the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup the 33-year-old all-rounder became the first South African to take a hat-trick in a World Cup match. Last month he retired from Test cricket after a career spanning 46 matches, following his release mid-way through the tour of England in July. JP talks to us about his career with the Proteas and his faith as a follower of Jesus Christ.

This past week's World Cup qualifiers has seen teams experience the highs of qualification and the despair of missing out. Argentina left it late winning their final Group game against Ecuador to seal their qualification for Russia 2018 and there was joy for Iceland, the nation with a population of just 350,000 who also reached next year's finals. But three teams who many expected to reach the finals - Netherlands, Ghana and the USA - missed out. We discuss some of the big stories in the race to reach the World Cup finals. And in track and field athletics we meet 400m runner Quanera Hayes who won gold as part of the USA's women's 4 x 400m relay team at the World Athletics Championships in London in August.

This week we meet a track and field athlete who is equally comfortable in the 100 and 200 metre sprints and the long jump. Nigerian Blessing Okagbare has been winning national, African and international titles since she was 17. Today, eleven years later, she has an Olympic medal from Beijing in 2008 and is still a major force in world athletics. At the recent World Athletics Championships in London she told us how she first got into the sport, explaining how her strong faith has taught her to be grateful and helped her through the tough challenges as well as the joys that come with the sport.

On the 4th of April 2016 Carlos Brathwaite entered West Indies folklore when he hit four successive sixes in the final over of the World T20 Competition against England in Kolkata to help West Indies win the World T20 crown. The 29-year old from Barbados has played 3 Test Matches for the West Indies and 23 One Day Internationals but it is in the 20-overs format of the game that he has really made his mark, playing for franchises in the Caribbean, India, Australia, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In April 2016 he was appointed captain of the WI T20 side. During the recent T20 series against England Brathwaite spoke to us about his career highlights, his strong faith and that final over against England at the 2016 T20 World Cup.

Pierre Spies played 53 times for South Africa in an international career spanning seven years from 2006 to 2013. The powerful forward played mainly as Number Eight or a flanker. Throughout his career he was hit by injuries and in August of this year he announced his retirement from the game at the age of 32 after being released by Montpellier. Pierre talks to us about the highlights of his career, the reasons behind his decision to retire and the direction he receives in his life as a follower of Jesus Christ.

USA track and field athlete Natasha Hastings first came to prominence as a 16 year old when she won the girls' 400m at the World Youth Championships in Sherbrooke, Canada. Since then she has progressed into a 400m relay specialist, helping the USA team to win two Olympic and five world titles, most recently at last month's World Athletics Championships in London. Now 31, she talks to us about the joys and challenges of her career over the past 15 years and the strength she draws from her faith as a committed follower of Jesus Christ.

Michelle Carter from the USA won the 2016 Olympic shot put title in dramatic fashion, overcoming New Zealand's Valerie Adams with her final throw to win the gold medal and with it claim a new American record. Michelle talked to us at the recent World Athletics Championships in London where she won the bronze medal about her role as Team Captain to the US team, her passion for her sport and the difference that her faith as a follower of Jesus Christ makes to her life.

This week we talk to the double Olympic and three-times world champion in the men's triple jump, Christian Taylor. Christian won his Olympic titles in 2012 (London) and 2016 (Rio). His World Championship triumphs were registered in 2011 in Daegu, 2015 in Beijing and three weeks ago in London. In 2015 he recorded his personal best of 18 metres 21 centimetres at the World Championships in Beijing, just 8 cms behind the world record set by Britain's Jonathan Edwards back in 1995. Christian talks to us about his hopes of one day setting a new world record and his life in athletics career and how that is influenced by his strong faith as a follower of Jesus Christ.

We talk to four of the athletes competing at last Sunday's Diamond League athletics meeting in Birmingham - Australia's 100m hurdles World Champion Sally Pearson, another World Champion Mutaz Barshim from Qatar in the high jump along with two athletes from The Bahamas, 400m runner Shaunae Miller-Uibo and hurdler Shane Braithwaite.

This week we hear the second part of our interview Faf du Plessis. The South Africa cricket captain talks about some of the players he admires most in world cricket today and shares why he believes his faith as a follower of Jesus Christ makes him a better husband, father and cricketer. We also meet British 100m hurdler Tiffany Porter at the recent World Athletics Championships in London as she tells us how she first got into the sport and how her faith impacts her life and athletics.