Greatest 2019 Sporting Highlights

There were many highlights in the sporting world for 2019 (see our 2019 year in review for a full rundown). Here are our top five sporting highlights. Take the poll and let us know your favorite.

Who said cricket was boring. The final of the Cricket World Cup was won by England in a nail-biter in possibly the greatest one-day cricket game ever. The scores were tied after full time, then in the tie-breaking super-over, the scores were equal again. England was awarded the championship on count-back.

There was high drama at the 2019 Kentucky Derby. Maximum Security led all the way, only to become the first winner disqualified for interference in the race's 145-year history. After a long wait, long-shot Country House was declared the winner. Country House paid 65-1, the second-highest odds for a winner in Derby history.

Team USA saw its 58-game international tournament winning streak come to an end at the FIBA Basketball World Cup. Team USA's last loss with NBA players on its roster came against Greece in the semifinals of the 2006 world championships.

Tiger Woods first major title in 11 years, winning the Masters for the fifth time. It was one of sport's greatest-all-time comebacks to end an 11-year major title drought, having endured and overcome controversy then crippling injuries.

At the Women's World Cup, the USA defended their title with a 2–0 victory over the Netherlands in the final.

Here are these five highlights listed in a poll, which one do you think is the greatest highlight?

What was your sporting highlight for 2019?

#!/usr/bin/perl -w # poll.cgi ############################################################### # # # Any use of this program is entirely at the risk of the # # user. No liability will be accepted by the author. # # # # This code must not be distributed or sold, even in modified # # form, without the written permission of the author. # # # ############################################################### use strict; # Load variables and class libraries, trap all errors eval { # Get script location (UNIX & Windows) ($0 =~ m,(.*)/[^/]+,) && unshift (@INC, "$1"); # Get script location (Windows) ($0 =~ m,(.*)\\[^\\]+,) && unshift (@INC, "$1"); # Load global variables and subroutines require "common.inc"; require "settings.inc"; # Load class libraries use CGI::Carp qw(fatalsToBrowser); use CGI qw(:standard); use lib::Date; use lib::FileDB; use strict; }; if ($@) { print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n", "Failed to load global variables and class libraries:\n$@\n", "Please make sure that all program files were uploaded in ASCII mode,\n", "permissions have been set correctly and all files are in correct location.\n", "Refer to program manual for more detail."; exit; } # Execute script eval { &main; }; if ($@) { print "Content-type: text/plain\n\n", "An unexpected error has occurred:\n$@\n"; exit; } ######################## MAIN PROGRAM BLOCK ######################## sub main { # Denial of service attack prevention $CGI::POST_MAX = 1024000; # max form post size $CGI::DISABLE_UPLOADS = 1; # no file uploads my $FORM = new CGI; my $poll_id; if ($FORM->param('poll_id')) { $poll_id = $FORM->param('poll_id'); } else { croak "Poll ID $ENV{'POLL_ID'} was not supplied."; } # Demo mode my $demo_check = $FORM->param('demo'); # Return URL my $return_url = $FORM->param('return_url'); # Read polls my $file_db = new lib::FileDB; $file_db->open_file(-file_name => "$main::DATA_PATH/POLLS.cgi"); $file_db->close_file(); my %poll_info = $file_db->get_record(-condition => "poll_id=$poll_id"); # Record not found croak "Could not locate poll (ID=$poll_id)." if !%poll_info; # Read poll options $file_db->open_file(-file_name => "$main::DATA_PATH/$poll_id.cgi"); $file_db->close_file(); my %poll_options_info = $file_db->get_records(); my $number_of_options = 0; $number_of_options = scalar(@{$poll_options_info{'option_num'}}) if %poll_options_info; # Load poll template require "$main::TMPL_PATH/$poll_info{'template'}.inc"; # Get current date my $date = new lib::Date; my $current_date = $date->current_date(); # Check if it's time to clean IP log if ($poll_info{'end_date'} > $current_date && $poll_info{'ip_cleaning_time'} && ($current_date - $poll_info{'ip_cleaning_date'}) >= $poll_info{'ip_cleaning_time'}) { my $tmp = $current_date - $poll_info{'ip_cleaning_date'}; &reset_ip_log($poll_id, $current_date); } # HTML output my $html_out = qq(
); # Options HTML my $options_html = ""; # Display error if vote is not active if (!$poll_info{'active'}) { $html_out = qq(Poll has been deactivated.); } else { my $already_voted; if ($poll_info{'end_date'} <= $current_date) { $already_voted = 1; } else { $already_voted = &see_if_voted($poll_id, $current_date, $poll_info{'ip_cleaning_time'}); } my ($start_date, $end_date) = ($date->to_string(-date => $poll_info{'start_date'}), $date->to_string(-date => $poll_info{'end_date'})); # Process vote if submitted and valid if ($FORM->param('submit_vote')) { if ($FORM->param('option') && !$already_voted && $poll_info{'end_date'} > $current_date) { &record_vote($poll_id, $current_date); } if ($return_url) { print "Location:$return_url\n\n"; } else { $demo_check = "&demo=$demo_check" if $demo_check; print "Location:$main::SCRIPT_URL/poll.cgi?poll_id=$poll_id$demo_check\n\n"; } exit; } # Skip voting and show results if ($FORM->param('view_results') && $main::submission_code =~ /\{VIEW_BUTTON\}/) { if ($return_url) { print "Location:$return_url?view_results\n\n"; } else { $demo_check = "&demo=$demo_check" if $demo_check; print "Location:$main::SCRIPT_URL/poll.cgi?poll_id=$poll_id$demo_check&view_results\n\n"; } exit; } # Display poll results elsif ($already_voted || (($ENV{'REQUEST_URI'} =~ /view_results/ || $ENV{'QUERY_STRING_UNESCAPED'} =~ /view_results/ || $ENV{'QUERY_STRING'} =~ /view_results/) && $main::submission_code =~ /\{VIEW_BUTTON\}/)) { # Get total number of votes my $total_votes = 0; foreach my $tmp_votes(@{$poll_options_info{'option_votes'}}) { $total_votes += $tmp_votes; } # Row separator my $row_separator = "\n"; for (my $n = 1; $n < ($number_of_options * 2); $n++) { $row_separator .= qq(\n); } $row_separator .= "\n"; # Column separator my $column_separator = qq(\n); # Poll option rows my $rows_str = ""; # Build horizontally aligned poll if ($main::poll_alignment eq 'horizontal') { $rows_str = &build_horizontal_poll($number_of_options, $total_votes, $main::show_votes, $main::show_percent, $main::show_bars, $main::bar_width, $main::bar_length, $row_separator, $column_separator, %poll_options_info); # Build vertically aligned poll } else { $rows_str = &build_vertical_poll($number_of_options, $total_votes, $main::show_votes, $main::show_percent, $main::show_bars, $main::bar_width, $main::bar_length, $row_separator, $column_separator, %poll_options_info); } $options_html = qq(\n$rows_str
\n); $html_out .= $main::display_code; $html_out =~ s/\{POLL_RESULTS\}/$options_html/g; $html_out =~ s/\{TOTAL_VOTES\}/$total_votes<\/font>/g; } # Display option selection else { for (my $m = 1; $m <= $number_of_options; $m++) { $options_html .= qq( $poll_options_info{'option_text'}[$m - 1]$main::option_separator\n); } $html_out .= $main::submission_code; $html_out =~ s/\{POLL_OPTIONS\}/$options_html<\/font>/g; $html_out =~ s/\{SUBMIT_BUTTON\}//g; $html_out =~ s/\{VIEW_BUTTON\}//g; } # Common variables for horizontal/vertical polls $html_out =~ s/\{POLL_QUESTION\}/$poll_info{'poll_question'}<\/font>/g; $html_out =~ s/\{START_DATE\}/$start_date<\/font>/g; $html_out =~ s/\{END_DATE\}/$end_date<\/font>/g; } # Attach "Close Window" button if viewing in demo mode if ($demo_check) { $html_out .= qq(
LINK TO POLL CGI:

$main::SCRIPT_URL/poll.cgi?poll_id=$poll_id


SSI CODE:
(replace highlighted VARIABLES with corresponding values)


<!--#include virtual="VIRTUAL-PATH-TO/poll.cgi?poll_id=$poll_id&return_url=URL-WITH-SSI-CALL"-->

); } # Complete poll $html_out .= ""; # Display poll print "Content-type: text/html\n\n"; print $html_out; exit; } ########################### SUB ROUTINES ########################### # Check visitor's IP address and cookies: # return 1 if already voted, 0 otherwise sub see_if_voted { my ($poll_id, $current_date, $ip_cleaning_time) = @_; my $FORM = new CGI; # Check cookies my $cookie_name = "pm_" . $poll_id . "_voted"; if ($main::USE_COOKIE_TRACKING && $FORM->cookie($cookie_name) > 0 && ($current_date - $FORM->cookie($cookie_name)) < $ip_cleaning_time) { return 1; # Check IP db } else { my $file_db = new lib::FileDB; $file_db->open_file(-file_name => "$main::DATA_PATH/$poll_id.log"); $file_db->close_file(); my %ip_info = $file_db->get_record(-condition => "ip_address=$ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'}"); if (%ip_info) { return 1; } else { return 0; } } } # Record vote sub record_vote { my ($poll_id, $current_date) = @_; my $FORM = new CGI; my $option_num = $FORM->param('option'); # Set cookie if ($main::USE_COOKIE_TRACKING) { my $cookie_name = "pm_" . $poll_id . "_voted"; print "Set-Cookie: $cookie_name=$current_date; expires=Sat, 10-Jan-2099 10:10:10 GMT; path=/\n"; } my $file_db = new lib::FileDB; # Update poll file $file_db->open_file( -file_name => "$main::DATA_PATH/$poll_id.cgi", -open_to => "update" ); my %poll_options_info = $file_db->get_record(-condition => "option_num=$option_num"); $file_db->update_records( -condition => "option_num=$option_num", -fields => ['option_votes'], -values => [++$poll_options_info{'option_votes'}] ); $file_db->commit_changes(); $file_db->close_file(); # Record IP address $file_db->open_file( -file_name => "$main::DATA_PATH/$poll_id.log", -open_to => "append" ); $file_db->insert_record(-values => [$ENV{'REMOTE_ADDR'}]); $file_db->commit_changes(); $file_db->close_file(); } # Build horizontal poll sub build_horizontal_poll { my ($number_of_options, $total_votes, $show_votes, $show_percent, $show_bars, $bar_width, $bar_length, $row_separator, $column_separator, %poll_options_info) = @_; # Initialize rows and temporary variables my (@rows, $rows_str, $percent_votes, $percent_bar); for (my $m = 0; $m < $number_of_options; $m++) { # Option text column $rows[$m] = "\n"; $rows[$m] .= qq($poll_options_info{'option_text'}[$m]\n); if ($show_votes) { $rows[$m] .= qq($column_separator$poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$m]\n); } # Vote percentage column if ($show_percent) { if ($total_votes == 0) { $percent_votes = 0; } else { $percent_votes = int(($poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$m] / $total_votes) * 100); if (((($poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$m] / $total_votes) * 100) - $percent_votes) >= 0.5) { $percent_votes++; # round off } } $rows[$m] .= qq($column_separator ($percent_votes%)\n); } # Graphical bars column if ($show_bars) { if ($total_votes < 1) { $percent_bar = 1; } else { $percent_bar = int(($poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$m] / $total_votes) * $bar_length); $percent_bar = 1 if $percent_bar < 1; } $rows[$m] .= qq($column_separator
); } # Complete row $rows[$m] .= "\n"; } # Combine all rows $rows_str = join $row_separator, @rows; return $rows_str; } # Build vertical poll sub build_vertical_poll { my ($number_of_options, $total_votes, $show_votes, $show_percent, $show_bars, $bar_width, $bar_length, $row_separator, $column_separator, %poll_options_info) = @_; # Initialize rows, columns and temporary variables my (@rows, @columns, $rows_str, $columns_str, $percent_votes, $percent_bar); # Graphical bars row if ($show_bars) { @columns = (); for (my $p = 0; $p < $number_of_options; $p++) { if ($total_votes == 0) { $percent_bar = 1; } else { $percent_bar = int(($poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$p] / $total_votes) * $bar_length); $percent_bar = 1 if $percent_bar < 1; } $columns[$p] = qq(
); } $columns_str = join $column_separator, @columns; push(@rows, qq( $columns_str\n\n)); } # Vote percentage row if ($show_percent) { @columns = (); for (my $q = 0; $q < $number_of_options; $q++) { if ($total_votes == 0) { $percent_votes = 0; } else { $percent_votes = int(($poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$q] / $total_votes) * 100); if (((($poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$q] / $total_votes) * 100) - $percent_votes) >= 0.5) { $percent_votes++; # round off } } $columns[$q] = qq(
$percent_votes%
); } $columns_str = join $column_separator, @columns; push(@rows, qq( \n$columns_str\n)); } # Votes row if ($show_votes) { @columns = (); for (my $r = 0; $r < $number_of_options; $r++) { $columns[$r] = qq(
$poll_options_info{'option_votes'}[$r]
); } $columns_str = join $column_separator, @columns; push(@rows, qq( \n$columns_str\n)); } # Option text row @columns = (); for (my $t = 0; $t < $number_of_options; $t++) { $columns[$t] = qq(
$poll_options_info{'option_text'}[$t]
); } $columns_str = join $column_separator, @columns; push(@rows, qq( \n$columns_str\n)); # Combine all rows $rows_str = join $row_separator, @rows; return $rows_str; } # Reset IP Log sub reset_ip_log { my ($poll_id, $current_date) = @_; my $file_db = new lib::FileDB; # Reset IP log $file_db->open_file(-file_name => "$main::DATA_PATH/$poll_id.log", -open_to => "overwrite" ); $file_db->insert_record(-values => ["IP_ADDRESS"]); $file_db->commit_changes(); $file_db->close_file(); # Update POLLS table $file_db->open_file( -file_name => "$main::DATA_PATH/POLLS.cgi", -open_to => "update" ); $file_db->update_records( -condition => "poll_id=$poll_id", -fields => ['ip_cleaning_date'], -values => [$current_date] ); $file_db->commit_changes(); $file_db->close_file(); }

Disclaimer: These polls are not scientific, and only reflect the opinion of visitors to this website who have chosen to participate.

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