Clijsters at a canter
A month of furious voting has passed as you - the eurosport.com public - chose your favourite athletes of the year. The polls have closed, the votes have been counted and today we can reveal your favourite athlete of 2003 is.......Kim Clijsters!!
After more than one hundred thousand votes, it was the 20-year-old world number two who came out on top in a two-horse race with Tour de France runner-up Jan Ullrich.
Clijsters - winner of nine singles titles on this year's WTA tour - was behind the German at one stage, but a late surge of support gave the Belgian a comprehensive victory with 51% of your votes - ahead of Ullrich's 36%.
The three also-rans were left trailing, with Ballon d'Or winner Pavel Nedved snatching a place on the podium with 7%. Motorcycling world champ Valentino Rossi (4%) and rugby World Cup-winner Jonny Wilkinson (2%) made up the field.
TENNIS
Clijsters surprisingly beat compatriot Justine Henin-Hardenne to gain some revenge for her defeats at the hands of the world number one in the US and French Open finals. Clijsters also saw off Wimbledon champ Roger Federer and Roland Garros winner Juan Carlos Ferrero as you voted her your top tennis player of the year.
CYCLING
Ullrich was your surprise choice for favourite cyclist of 2003, holding off five-time Tour winner Lance Armstrong and world champion Igor Astarloa.
The German's brave but ultimately vain bid for the yellow jersey in a rain-soaked time-trial was one of the defining moments of the Tour, with his chances of victory slipping away as he slid to the ground.
FOOTBALL
The closest poll of them all - after almost 10,000 votes, Nedved and Thierry Henry were neck-and-neck before the Czech's Ballon d'Or triumph tipped the scales in his favour by the narrowest of margins - 37% to 36%. Nedved produced masterful performances for Juventus - inspiring them to the Champions League final and a second successive scudetto - and the Czech national side as they qualified for Euro 2004, which surely swung the vote in his favour.
MOTORSPORTS
Rossi did to his competition in this poll what he has done to his Moto GP rivals on the track over the last three years - destroyed them! With a mammoth 80% of your votes, the peerless triple world champion put Michael Schumacher's historic sixth Formula One drivers' title in the shade - the German being your second favourite with 7%.
THE BEST OF THE REST
Rugby - Jonny Wilkinson's World Cup-winning drop goal against Australia in Sydney saw him voted the overwhelming winner of the rugby poll with 52% of your votes. Ireland's inspirational captain Keith Wood - now retired from international competition - came in second.
Athletics - Poland's Robert Korzeniowski walked the athlete of the year poll with 53%, but Sweden's heptathlon world champion Carolina Kluft beat off middle-distance legend Hicham El Guerrouj for second, adding to her award as Europe's best athlete.
Wintersports - Despite making a triumphant comeback from his career-threatening motorcycle accident, Austrian speed-king Hermann Maier could not catch Poland's ski-jumping magician Adam Malysz (33%) and Estonian cross-country star Kristina Smigun (49%).
Basketball - It was close, but Euro 2003 MVP Sarunas Jasikevicius edged out NBA giant Tim Duncan as your favourite hoop-shooter of the year. The Maccabi Tel Aviv point guard led Lithuania to their first European title since 1939 - his nine assists and ten points helping secure the crown and a place in the Olympics.
Swimming - Michael Phelps may have been the star of the Barcelona world championships, but your eurosport.com favourite is indisputably Alexander Popov. The Russian - who will go for a unique hat-trick of Olympic golds in the same event (100m freestyle) in Athens - got 51% of your votes, outstripping Phelps' 28% and Ian Thorpe's 21%. Popov and Pieter van den Hoogenbrand both beat the Thorpedo in Barcelona - relish the thought of the battle that awaits at the Games!
Eurosport - Ian Holyman
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