| 18th Commonwealth Games | |
|---|---|
| Host city | Melbourne, Victoria, Australia |
| Motto | United by the moment |
| Nations participating | 71[1] |
| Athletes participating | Approximately 4,500 |
| Events | 245 in 17 sports |
| Opening ceremony | 15 March 2006 |
| Closing ceremony | 26 March 2006 |
| Officially opened by | Queen Elizabeth II |
| Athlete's Oath | Adam Pine |
| Queen's Baton Final Runner | John Landy |
| Main Stadium | Melbourne Cricket Ground |
The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia between 15 March and 26 March 2006. It was the largest sporting event to be staged in Melbourne, eclipsing the 1956 Summer Olympics in terms of the number of teams competing, athletes competing, and events being held.
The site for the opening and closing ceremonies was the Melbourne Cricket Ground which was also used during Melbourne's 1956 Olympic Games. The mascot for the games was Karak, a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (a threatened species).[2]
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During the 1998 Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, three cities initially expressed interest in hosting the event; Melbourne, Wellington and Singapore. Singapore dropped out before its bid was officially selected by the Commonwealth Games Federation, leaving only two candidate cities. In the weeks prior to the announcement of the 2006 host, Wellington withdrew its bid, citing the costs involved with matching the bid plan presented by Melbourne, which became the default host without members of the Federation going to vote.
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Early concerns arose about the large cost of staging the Games, with projected costs likely to be over 1 billion Australian dollars and a high likelihood the Victorian taxpayer would have to cover the expense. The cost was described in some local media as excessive. National Party leader Peter Ryan said that the Labor government should win "gold (medal) for burning money" [2] However, not all of this money was wasted. The actual costs for hosting the games was 1.144 billion dollars & prior to the Games, accountants at KPMG were estimating that the gross income generated by this event could be as high as 1.5 billion dollars.
Melbourne's premier sporting ground, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), was redeveloped in preparation for the Games. An athlete's village in the inner suburb of Parkville housed approximately 7,000 athletes and support staff during the Games, and has been transformed into commercial housing with a distinctly eco-friendly image. The creation of this village attracted controversy, with critics claiming it was created by alienating public parkland, while proponents maintained that it represented the renewal of an otherwise derelict inner-city area.[3]
The change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time in Australian states that follow it was delayed from 26 March to 2 April for 2006 to avoid affecting the games. In addition, state and private schools amended their usual term times so as to allow the first term holidays to coincide with the Games.[4]
Melbourne's public transport system - train, tram and bus - ran to altered timetables with some amended or substituted services for the duration of the Games. For the most part, timetabled services were unchanged but suffered due to higher loads.[5]
For the first time ever, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games appointed a Goodwill Partner, Plan International Australia.[6]
The following venues were used at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The sport(s) which were played at that venue is listed after it.
Both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Yarra River were centrepieces for the ceremony, which included many fireworks, and other spectacle. The Games were opened by Queen Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also Head of State of a number of Commonwealth countries, including Australia.
The 2006 Commonwealth Games included 17 sports, with 12 individual sports and 4 team sports. In total there are 245 events at the Games.
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| OC | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | 1 | Event finals | CC | Closing ceremony |
| March | 15th Wed |
16th Thu |
17th Fri |
18th Sat |
19th Sun |
20th Mon |
21st Tue |
22nd Wed |
23rd Thu |
24th Fri |
25th Sat |
26th Sun |
Events | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ceremonies | OC | CC | ||||||||||||
| Athletics | 3 | 10 | 6 | 6 | 8 | 9 | 11 | 53 | ||||||
| Badminton | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 5 | 5 | ||
| Basketball | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | 2 | ||||
| Boxing | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 11 | 11 | |||||
| Cycling | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 18 | ||||||
| Diving | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 8 | |||||||||
| Gymnastics | 1 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | 24 | |||||
| Field hockey | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | 6 | ||||
| Netball | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | |||
| Rugby sevens | ● | 1 | 1 | |||||||||||
| Shooting | 6 | 4 | 6 | 5 | 4 | 5 | 5 | 3 | 2 | 40 | ||||
| Squash | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | ● | ● | ● | 3 | 5 | |||
| Swimming | 5 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 11 | 7 | 42 | |||||||
| Synchronised swimming | ● | 2 | 2 | |||||||||||
| Table tennis | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | 2 | 6 | ||
| Weightlifting | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | 1 | 16 | ||||
| Total Events | 11 | 18 | 20 | 21 | 39 | 26 | 17 | 19 | 19 | 29 | 17 | 245 | ||
| Cumulative total | 11 | 29 | 49 | 70 | 109 | 135 | 152 | 171 | 190 | 219 | 245 | |||
| March | 15th Wed |
16th Thu |
17th Fri |
18th Sat |
19th Sun |
20th Mon |
21st Tue |
22nd Wed |
23rd Thu |
24tg Fri |
25th Sat |
26th Sun |
Events | |
Both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Yarra River were again centrepieces for the ceremony. Samresh Jung of India was given the David Dixon Award at the closing ceremony. He was the "Best Athlete of the 18th Commonwealth Games". The games were closed by HRH Prince Edward.
Note:The country coloured in blue is the host country i.e. Australia
| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Australia | 84 | 69 | 69 | 222 |
| 2 | England | 36 | 40 | 34 | 110 |
| 3 | Canada | 26 | 29 | 31 | 86 |
| 4 | India | 22 | 17 | 11 | 50 |
| 5 | South Africa | 12 | 13 | 13 | 38 |
| 6 | Scotland | 11 | 7 | 11 | 29 |
| 7 | Jamaica | 10 | 4 | 8 | 22 |
| 8 | Malaysia | 7 | 12 | 10 | 29 |
| 9 | New Zealand | 6 | 12 | 13 | 31 |
| 10 | Kenya | 6 | 5 | 7 | 18 |
There were 71 countries, territories and bodies competing at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.[7] The only difference between the 2006 games and the 2002 games was the absence of Zimbabwe, which withdrew from the Commonwealth of Nations.
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On 20 March 2006 it was reported that two athletes had gone missing from the Commonwealth Games village: Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri and Bangladeshi runner Mohammad Tawhidul Islam.[8][9]
On 22 March 2006 it was reported that seven athletes from Sierra Leone (three women and four men) had also disappeared. A further seven Sierra Leonean athletes also went missing during the course of the Games, bringing the total runaway count to fourteen (two thirds of the team). Victoria Police believed that they had fled to Sydney where the Sierra Leonean community is much larger than Melbourne's.
Two hours before the Closing Ceremony on 26 March, officials from the Cameroon team reported to police that nine of their members had also vanished.
These incidents were not without precedent: 27 athletes similarly disappeared from the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England (21 from Sierra Leone, 5 from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan), and over 80 athletes and officials overstayed their visas after the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.[10]
On request of Sierra Leone officials, the Commonwealth Games Federation cancelled those athletes' Games accreditation, allowing the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) to cancel their visas at midnight on 27 March, and begin investigating their disappearance.
At 7.20am on that day, New South Wales Police located six of the Sierra Leonean athletes in a house at Freshwater near Manly Beach in Sydney. All six indicated they wished to seek political asylum in Australia, and were granted bridging visas by DIMA while their refugee applications were arranged. The athletes claimed to have been subjected to violence and torture in their home country; seventeen-year-old Isha Conteh stated she could be forced into female genital cutting if she returned.[11] On Tuesday 28 March, six further Sierra Leoneans turned themselves in to immigration authorities in Sydney and were also granted bridging visas.[12]
Two of the missing Cameroon athletes were later found in Perth, Western Australia.
| Wikinews has a related section:
[//en.wikinews.org/wiki/Portal:Commonwealth_Games Commonwealth Games]
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| Preceded by Manchester |
Commonwealth Games Host city |
Succeeded by Delhi |
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