Top 10 hoodoos

Despite being a world record holder for most of his career, Colin Jackson never managed to win an Olympic gold medal. Photo / Getty Images

Sailing
160 years - Britain has not won the America's Cup
It has been New Zealand's Cup, Australia's Cup and even landlocked Switzerland's (read Ernesto Bertarelli's) Cup, but never Great Britain's Cup. Britannia might rule the waves but not when it comes to sailing for the Auld Mug. It is an exercise in simplification to refer to any successful America's Cup challenge by nationality when campaigns are generally bankrolled by big business, but either way the British have never fronted.

The trophy was originally awarded in 1851 by the Royal Yacht Squadron to the schooner America for winning a fleet race around the Isle of Wight. Legend has it Queen Victoria, who was watching at the finish line, asked who was second and received the response: "Ah, Your Majesty, there is no second." The trophy was renamed after the winning boat and resided at the New York Yacht Club from 1857 until 1983 when it moved to Perth. The British pulled out of the 2013 Cup in San Francisco.
- Andrew Alderson

Rugby
106 years - Scotland and Ireland still waiting to beat the All Blacks
Scotland's World Cup record is impressive. They have made the knockout rounds on every occasion and in the last three years they have beaten three of the top four sides - Australia, South Africa and Ireland. The Irish, too, have a reasonable pedigree - a Grand Slam in 2009 and currently ranked fourth in the world. They are two of the founding nations of world rugby and absolutely considered heavyweights.

Yet in more than 100 years of trying neither of them has beaten the All Blacks. The Irish have managed one draw: a 10-10 effort in 1973. There have been a few other occasions where it has been close - the first test of 1992 was maybe one Ireland should have nailed and then again in 2001 and 2002 they got close before blowing up in the final quarter. The Scots have managed two draws and but for a cruel referee decision probably would have won at Eden Park in 1990. But that's just it - all they have is hard-luck stories and the frustration of having occasionally been so nearly there.
- Gregor Paul

Cricket
80 years - New Zealand have not beaten South Africa in a test series
This will come into focus over summer when South Africa tour New Zealand for the first time in eight years. South Africa remains the one test-playing country New Zealand has not beaten in 12 series - dating back to the summer of 1931-32 - despite four wins in 35 tests. From time to time these nations have been evenly matched. It was 1-all going into the final two tests of the five-match series in 1961-62 before South Africa won the fourth at Johannesburg and New Zealand drew the series 2-all, winning at Port Elizabeth.

New Zealand took a 1-0 lead into the Boxing Day test at Durban in 1994-95. However, the tour became infamous not only for the cannabis-smoking incident but also because the New Zealanders were just the second side in history to lose a three-test series after being one up. New Zealand was also one up after two tests of the three-match series in 2003-04 before South Africa triumphed at Wellington.
- Andrew Alderson

NFL
41 years - Buffalo Bills' painful wait for the Superbowl
Plenty of teams have seen Superbowl success elude them, but surely none have a tale of woe that matches the Bills of Buffalo. Part of the NFL since 1970, they enjoyed a purple patch in the early 1990s, reaching four consecutive Superbowls from 1990 to 1993. No other team before or since - not even the Dallas Cowboys, San Francisco 49ers or Green Bay Packers - have managed such a feat.

However, the Bills are also the only team to lose four straight deciders, which proved tough to take for their hardened fans. They had a good team, anchored by quarterback Jim Kelly who pioneered the "no huddle offence", a common feature of today's play. But they were outlasted by the New York Giants (1990), Chicago Redskins (1991) and the Dallas Cowboys (1992 and 93). The 20-19 loss to the Giants when they were overwhelming favourites was particularly heartbreaking. Scott Norwood missed a 47-yard field goal with eight seconds on the clock, the most famous miss in NFL history - Michael Burgess

Netball
32 years - world championships drought for non-transtasman teams
While we all relish the transtasman netball battles on the world stage, the complete domination of the Silver Ferns and Australians is a sad reflection on the international status of the sport. In 1979, hosts Trinidad and Tobago were joint world champions (alongside New Zealand and Australia) but since then no other country has come close to piercing the Australasian axis. South Africa, inspired by Irene van Dyk, shocked New Zealand in 1995 to claim second place but could not get near the eventual world champion Diamonds.

Trinidad and Tobago have gone backwards since their halcyon days. Jamaica still threatens through Romelda Aiken but their powers are on the wane. England has improved markedly in recent years, helped by some of their players involved in the ANZ Championship, but not at a pace that will enable them to catch the Antipodeans in the near future.
- Michael Burgess

Hockey
31 years - Indian men's team's last Olympic gold medal
After six consecutive Olympic gold medals between 1928 and 1956, followed by 1964 and a boycott decimated victory at Moscow in 1980 where they hammered ring-ins Tanzania and Cuba, India have gained no more medals. The latest indignity was failing to qualify for the Beijing Games. India are ranked ninth in the world and have to win one of three qualifying tournaments next year to get to London.

Their hockey dynasty began when 22-year-old army captain Dhyan Chand led the way scoring 15 goals and their defence let through none at the Amsterdam Olympics. Chand's legend lives on - the 2010 Delhi Commonwealth venue was named after him. Sadly, the Indian hockey legend does not. Once the nation's cricketers won the World Cup in 1983 and their hockey counterparts could do no better than fifth at the following year's Olympics, an irreversible transition began.
- Andrew Alderson

Tennis
28 years - The last time a Frenchman won at Roland Garros
While the world likes to mock Wimbledon for its paucity of British male champions, the situation in France is not much better. The last French man to triumph at Roland Garros was the dreadlocked Yannick Noah, who beat Mats Wilander back in 1983.

What makes the drought more galling is that since then - in stark contrast to Britain - there have been a procession of talented Gallic players, all accomplished on the Parisian clay. Men like Henri Leconte, Guy Forget, Gael Monfils, Richard Gasquet, Gilles Simon and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga all reached the top 10 - or better - but none have had the combination of grit, genius and good fortune that it takes to win their home grand slam.

Monfils and Tsonga may yet make the ultimate mark in Paris but the presence of Novak Djokovic, Rafael Nadal, Tomas Berdych and others is likely to ensure further French misery for years. Forget about another Noah triumph - his son plumped for basketball and is a star of the French national team.
-Michael Burgess

Football
21 years - Anfield's last English league title in 1990
For the 1970s and 1980s Liverpool were the benchmark in English football, as they swept all before them in complete domination of the domestic game. Across 18 years they collected 11 league titles but now an entire generation of fans have not seen the Premier League trophy at Anfield. The last time the Reds were English champions was 1990; Margaret Thatcher was in Downing St and the Soviet Union was still intact. Liverpool has still had plenty of memorable moments since, including that unforgettable Champions League victory in 2005, but it is the league title that Kop fans cherish most.

Their pain has been accentuated by Manchester United's dominance in the same period, with their rivals crowned champions on 12 occasions since Liverpool's last. There have been some near misses (1995- 96 and 2008-09, among others) but Manchester City's recent emergence has even threatened Liverpool's place among the big four and the title seems as far away as ever.
- Michael Burgess

Olympics
Colin Jackson's Olympic failures
Colin Jackson won just about everything in his glittering athletics career - except an Olympic gold medal. It was incredible how this celebrated hurdler just couldn't nail the big one. He dominated the 110m hurdles between 1987 and 2000 - winning two world championships, four European championships, two Commonwealth gold medals and numerous indoor titles. Yet the best he managed was a silver at the 1988 Olympics. It was a bitter pill.

For most of his career he was the world record holder having clocked 12.91s in 1993 - a record that stood for 13 years. He was the favourite to win gold in Barcelona 1992 but he blew it and finished seventh. In 1996 he couldn't deliver again and was pushed out to fourth and in his last effort in 2000 - he trundled in fifth. It was a blot on a brilliant career and speaking after his retirement in 2003 Jackson said of the 1992 final: "There's no doubt this was the worst race of my career ... That is what was written in the stars for Colin Jackson, and I've got to get on with it."
- Gregor Paul

Golf
Three years and two months - Tiger Woods last won a golfing major
This might not seem a blip compared to other hoodoos but on Planet Tiger, it is an eternity. At 35, his days as a major winner could be over. That means with the tally at 14 he will never eclipse Jack Nicklaus' record of 18.

Injury has played its part. His last major victory at the US Open on the Torrey Pines course in 2008 is memorable for him playing with a double stress fracture in his lower left leg, yet still holing two tournament-saving putts to keep his hopes alive; the first to equal Rocco Mediate after 72 holes and the second to force their 18-hole playoff into sudden death.

Then came his marriage woes in late 2009 and bang - as it were - the world as Woods knew it degenerated. His wife Elin, lucrative endorsements, a choreographed apology and a dumped Kiwi caddie later, Woods looks no closer to recapturing the mojo that made him a golfing genius. November 2009 was the last time he won a tournament. He leaves an impression of a man with much wealth but little wisdom.
- Andrew Alderson