Another sportsmen who missed out on glory was Nomar Garciaparra. He had played for, and was the face of the Boston Red Sox for 10 years, and for those ten years it was his and the team’s dream was to win the Baseball World Series. However he was traded to the Chicago Cubs on Major League Baseball deadline day in 2004. He was quoted as saying at the time ‘If it was in my control, I’d still be wearing a Red Sox uniform. That’s the place I know, I love, all those fans, I’ll always remember’. Three months later the Boston Red Sox won the Baseball World Series for the first time in 86 years.

Filbert Bayi broke the 1500m world record in the 1974 Commonwealth Games, narrowly beating local hero John Walker. They would have competed against each other again in the 1976 Olympics had Tanzania not boycotted the Olympics in protest at a rugby union tour of South Africa , by the New Zealand team. Needless to say Walker won the gold medal at the games.

Miguel Angel Martin missed out on the Ryder Cup in 1997 due to being axed from the team three weeks before the tournament. The reason? He refused to play 18 holes to test a wrist injury.

Micheal Jones, the All-Black flanker refused to play matches on a Sunday due to his faith, and therefore missed the semi-final of the World Cup in 1991, where the All-Blacks were playing Australia, who eventually won.

Jenny Gunn, who has been playing cricket since she was 10 years old, had to be replaced before the Cricket World Cup final this year when she sustained a calf injury in the warm up to the game. It was England’s first time in the Cricket World Cup final in 16 years.

And there’s Roberto De Vicenzo, who has had to endure the sting of making one of Argentina’s worst sporting mistakes. No South American has ever won the Green Jacket of the Masters but their (and his) chance of victory in 1968 was lost when he inadvertently submitted an incorrect scorecard, thereby giving American Bob Goalby a one shot victory instead of sending the year’s first major to a playoff.