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18th Dec 2016

WATCH: Andy Murray makes the nation cringe with the most awkward moment of 2016

This is horribly painful to watch - proceed with caution...

Nooruddean Choudry

 

Our toes won’t uncurl.

First and foremost, Andy Murray deserves all the praise and kudos in the world for a remarkable year, which surely cements the 29-year-old as the greatest sportsman that the UK has ever produced.

Not only did he win another Olympic gold in Rio, as well as the second Wimbledon title of his glittering career, but he also overtook Novak Djokovic at the top of the ATP rankings.

On Sunday evening he was very deservedly awarded a record third BBC Sports Personality of the Year award at a glittering ceremony at the Genting Arena in Birmingham.

Sadly Murray was not able to be there with Gary Lineker and co, but accepted his trophy via satellite linkup from Miami. And sadly for him, this resulted in the most painful 1 min 10 secs of his life.

There were no technical issues, but poor Andy must have wished there was. That’s because he was made to follow a laboured acceptance speech with over 60 seconds of painful nothingness.

The producers make him stare at the thousands of sportspeople in the arena – and millions watching at home – all through the end credits, and everyone felt desperately awkward for him.

You can almost make out the exact moment when the forced smile begins to crack and a struggling Murray loses the will to live…and yet the cruel BBC camera lingers, for what seems like hours.

Behold the 70 long seconds of quiet desperation – and the reaction of the fist-biting onlookers…