Heartbreaking moments in sports

[Kyng]

Over the years, sport has given us plenty of stories of human achievement: of beating the odds, and triumphing over adversity. However, there are also plenty of people who came achingly close to doing this - only to fall at the final hurdle. This thread is dedicated to all of those heartbreaking near-misses - and tantalizing stories of "What could have been".

I'll start off with this clip of Thai snooker player Thepchaiya Un-Nooh, at the 2015 UK Snooker Championship. He had never before hit a maximum break of 147 in professional play - and, there was a prize of £44,000 for doing just that. He potted the first 15 reds and 15 blacks perfectly; then the yellow, green, brown, blue and pink... but then, he missed the final black :



And as if costing himself £44,000 with one missed ball wasn't bad enough... he was in the same situation in qualifying for the 2016 World Championship, and the exact same thing happened again . However, he didn't have to wait too much longer for his first successful 147, which came at the 2016 Paul Hunter Classic, so there is a happy ending to all of this .

Anyway, have there been any other heartbreaking chokes and near-misses that you think are worth noting?

[Kreashko]

The only one I can think of isArmando Galarraga's ALMOST perfect game.

Fun fact, before today I thought it was Ubaldo Jiménez who got screwed but after researching my "history" it was Galarraga. Either way I remember it like it was yesterday with the blown call.

[Kyng]

Another one was home favourite Heather Watson's third-round match against Serena Williams at Wimbledon 2015.

In the deciding set, she broke Serena's serve in order to go 3-0 up, and was one point away from going 4-0 up. She lost that point (and lost that game), but she eventually went 5-4 up, and had a chance to serve for the match. Sadly, she lost that game - and Serena was able to pull ahead and win the match.

In the end, Serena won the tournament - which makes me wonder how much further Watson could have advanced had she won that match. Sometimes, when a lesser player knocks out a top player, it's the beginning of a deep run into the tournament - but other times, they just go out in the next round .

[Kyng]

And now one from Formula One.

The Arrows team took part in 382 races between 1978 and 2002, without ever winning a single one of them. However, they did have some close calls - most notably at the 1997 Hungarian Grand Prix, where Damon Hill took the lead on the 11th lap, and cruised off into distance, towards what looked like a certain victory. But then, in the closing laps of the race, his car developed a throttle problem... and, on the last lap of the race, he very sadly had to give up the lead to Jacques Villeneuve:



That was just cruel... it still upsets me nearly 25 years later, to be honest .

[Gamer Nerd]

I know that I'm not a fan of Wisconsin sports anymore after 10 years, but the heartbreaking moment in sport is the Packers fell to the Seahawks 28-22 in overtime after that botched onside kick by Brandon Bostick in the 4th quarter.

[Kyng]

And now a whole series of them here:

Top 10 Drivers Who Lost A Maiden Win

Some of these weren't so bad in the end; for example, Hill won the very next race. However, three of them (Salo, Johansson, Amon) never won an F1 race, so theirs were particularly heartbreaking . (George Russell has also yet to win a race - although, since he's still an active driver, I don't include him in that group)

Also, I'm surprised that that video didn't include Nigel Mansell at Monaco in 1984 .