Alex Powell - Brendon McCullum's England
At the start of 2022, England's test cricket record made for abysmal reading - one win in their last 17 tests.
A 4-0 Ashes series loss to Australia saw Chris Silverwood sacked and left England, boasting the most playing resources in the game, without a men's head coach.
With the role split in two, former Blackcaps captain Brendon McCullum was parachuted in from the Indian Premier League and stunned all comers by taking charge of the test team.
The move brought immediate results. Including a 3-0 sweep of the Blackcaps, McCullum's England won nine of ten tests this year, making use of a methodology that would come to be known as 'BazBall', a term he refutes profusely out of humility.
Like he'd done as New Zealand captain, McCullum was able to push his team to play without fear and play to entertain.
Combined with the captaincy of Ben Stokes, the sky really is the limit for what England can achieve with two Kiwis at the helm.
Nicky Styris - Kenyan marathon runner Eliud Kipchoge
Kipchoge who broke his own world record, lowering the mark to 2h 01m 09s, powering to victory at the Berlin Marathon in September - an unbelievable feat!
Shaving 30 seconds off the record he set at the same event four years ago, Kipchoge set a standard that no-one could come close to over the entire marathon and secured his 15th career win.
I am in awe of his speed and endurance!
Ollie Ritchie - Ireland rugby
Everyone knew Ireland were capable of giving the All Blacks a run for their money when they toured here in July, especially given the touch-up Ian Foster's side got at Dublin last year.
What we got in that three-match series was a true marker of both Ireland's immense strengths and All Blacks frailties.
To beat the All Blacks at home can be difficult for even the best teams in the world, so to do it twice in a row and walk away with a series victory on New Zealand soil for the first time ever takes something incredibly special.
To understand the significance of Ireland's victory, the All Blacks and NZ Rugby were sent into full-blown panic mode, forcing them to sack two assistant coaches.
Ireland fully deserved their victory, beating the All Blacks from pillar to post.
Don't be surprised to see Johnny Sexton holding the Webb Ellis Trophy at Paris next year.
Reece Labuschagne - Morocco's World Cup performance
Morocco created history by becoming the first African nation to qualify for the Football World Cup semi-finals, after back-to-back upsets of the game's biggest teams.
After beating Belgium's 'Golden Generation' in their group opener, Morocco shocked Spain on penalties in the Round of 16, before sending Cristiano Ronald's Portugal crashing out in the quarters.
They faced France in the semi-finals, with another upset potentially setting up a final against Lionel Messi's Argentina, but could not continue their dream run against the defending champions.
Morocco will have had the most support of any remaining team in Qatar, and carried the weight of all of African and Arab nations' expectations.
Having not even reached semi-finals in their most recent African Cup of Nations, their semi-final qualification at the World Cup is an incredible achievement.
Tom Bartlett - Formula One champion Max Verstappen
If controversial describes Max Verstappen's maiden world driver's championship win in 2021, there's only one way to describe his second - emphatic.
This was a masterclass, as Verstappen recorded a record number of race wins (15) and a record number of championship points, and all with the swagger of a man in the prime of his racing career.
Verstappen is a rare talent and, worryingly for his rivals, he will only get better, as he gets older and wiser.
The only downer to the 2022 F1 season was its lack of a grandstand finish, which might make the next season of the Netflix series Drive to Survive a little more tame in comparison to previous ones.
Grant Chapman - Serena Williams retires (probably)
Love her or hate her, Williams walks away from tennis as perhaps the greatest to weild a racket - certainly among women.
The stats bear out her quality - 319 weeks at No.1, including 186 consecutively, and 23 Grand Slam singles titles, a record for the Open Era and one short of Margaret Court's overall mark.
Two 'Serena Slams' - holding all four Grand Slams simultaneously - in singles and another in doubles, as well as four Olympic golds, including three with sister Venus in doubles.
Her two visits to the ASB Classic left fans with mixed feelings - the first ended impetuously, after she discovered she was pregnant, but she returned to win over the Auckland faithful with her 2020 singles victory.
Every indication was that her highly choreographed appearance at this year's US Open - ironically, the scene of her biggest meltdown against Naomi Osaka in 2018 - was her last, as she turns the page on this stage of her life.
Celebrities poured into Flushing Meadows to be seen on the sidelines and while the door is still ajar for a curtain call, hopefully Williams will not extend the melodrama into another year.
Stephen Foote - Lionel Messi leads Argentina to Football World Cup
Cometh the hour, cometh the Messi.
If Argentina's run to their third World Cup triumph had been a film script, studios probably would have discarded it with a dismissive laugh.
Their standing as pre-tournament favourites was thrown into question when they suffered one of the greatest upsets in history to start their campaign, falling to a scarcely believable 2-1 loss to Saudi Arabia.
But led by Lionel Messi - making his final bid to rectify the one glaring omission from his CV - the team responded with trademark South American flair, dispatching Mexico and Australia on their way to a semi-final date with the Dutch.
Goalkeeper Emi Martinez stepped up in the penalty shootout to seal their place in the final four, where they made light work of the Croatians in the semi-finals.
That left defending champions France in their way of glory - who they battled to the very limit in one of the most brilliant matches of sport the planet has ever seen.
Ultimately, it was Messi who emerged from the frenzy - his place atop the pantheon of footballing greats secure and Argentina crowned champions and their deserving fans sent into a haze of hysteria that will take a long time to clear.
