Top 5 Moments In World Sports 2023: Virat Kohli's Record To Novak Djokovic's 24th Major

Top 5 Moments In World Sports 2023: The year is drawing to a close and it had plenty of memorable sporting moments for fans to look back at. MyKhel handpicks five such moments from the year to you.

The year saw Spain's women's football team lift the World Cup for the first time and was followed by controversy that saw the Spanish FA chief forced to resign. Among other standout moments, Noah Lyles set the track on fire while pole vaulter Armando Duplantis continued to set new heights in the sport with one world record after another.

However, none of them made our Top five list. Let's take a look at our list below:

Virat Kohli surpassed Sachin Tendulkar for most ODI centuries

In ODIs, Virat Kohli broke the record held by Master Blaster Sachin Tendulkar with a ton of 49 centuries. In the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 semi-final against New Zealand, he accomplished this feat by hitting his 50th ODI century in 106 balls.

While Sachin needed 452 innings to score his 49th century, Virat needed just 279 innings to hit the 50th-century record. Eventually, at 117 runs off 113 deliveries, he was removed from the game. In addition, he broke Tendulkar's previous record for the most runs in a World Cup edition, which was set in 2003 when the Master Blaster hit 673 runs.

Novak Djokovic won record 24th Grand Slam title at US Open

Novak Djokovic turned 2023 into one of his best years to date as he won the record 24th Grand Slam title with year's last Major in US Open. As the player with the most Grand Slam victories in sports history, Djokovic finishes the year ranked first in the world.

In addition to tying Margaret Court for the most Grand Slam victories, Djokovic broke Rafael Nadal's record for the most Majors won by a men's player with three Grand Slam victories. The Serbian lost out on Wimbledon title as Carlos Alcaraz defeated him in the final but he won the Australian Open, Roland Garros, and US Open.

LeBron James became NBA's all-time highest scorer

NBA legend LeBron James has cemented his status in the history of the game by breaking Kareem Abdul-Jabbar's record for most points scored. In a game against the Oklahoma City Thunder on Tuesday, February 7, 2023, the Los Angeles Lakers player accomplished this achievement.

Despite the team's 133-130 loss, James scored 38 points in the game to attain a total of 38,390 points in the regular season. The American basketball player reached a milestone in 2023-24 when he scored over 39,000 points in regular season play and over 47,000 points when adding points from playoff and regular season games.

The previous record-holder, Abdul-Jabbar, had 38,387 points from regular season games. James accomplished his total in little more than 1,400 games, whilst Abdul-Jabbar needed 1,560 games to reach his record.

Pep Guardiola's Manchester City wins historic treble

One of the best clubs in the Premier League, Manchester City concluded a remarkable year in 2023 with a historic string of wins. They won the FA Cup, the Premier League, and the Champions League in Istanbul for the first time in June, completing the triple.

With this accomplishment, Manchester City joins elite clubs like Celtic (1967), Ajax (1972), PSV Eindhoven (1988), Manchester United (1999), Barcelona (2009 and 2015), Inter Milan (2010), and Bayern Munich (2013 and 2020) as the only other European team to win a triple crown. This is only the eleventh time that a team from Europe has achieved such a feat.

Pep Guardiola has led the team to 14 major championships with great success. This comprises their first Champions League title, two FA Cups, four League Cups, five Premier League titles, and two Community Shields.

Three-time World Champion Max Verstappen wins 19 races in 2023

Red Bull's most successful season in Formula One to date was the 2023 season. The Milton Keynes-based constructor finished the 2023 season with a perfect record, winning all but one of the Grand Prix events.

Their poster child, Max Verstappen, went on to win the Formula One World Championship for a record three times. This year, the Dutch racer broke several F1 records, including his wins of 15 races in a season, improving it to 19.