Games finale debacle

ANNASTACIA Palaszczuk says the organisers of the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games closing ceremony should be ashamed for not giving athletes the starring role.

The Queensland premier was scathing about the decision to effectively exclude the athletes from the broadcast.

Previous years have seen teams featured entering the stadium behind their nation’s flag bearer.

“I’m just as disappointed as anyone else,” Ms Palaszczuk said while attending a post Games celebration in Surfers Paradise yesterday morning.

“Whoever made that decision not to allow those athletes to march in should hang their head in shame.”

The closing ceremony has been criticised as underwhelming, including from Ric Birch, who choreographed the Sydney Olympic and other Games ceremonies but lost out to US-based firm Jack Morton Worldwide (JMW) to stage the Gold Coast event.

Athletes were brought into Carrara Stadium before the broadcast on Sunday.

“What I’ve been told makes it sounds like a school concert and given the role of Schoolies Week in the Gold Coast, perhaps that was the idea,” Mr Birch said.

“(It) sounds as though the producers planned (nothing) other than a parade of songs and singers with a kind of ‘Hit Parade’ choreography to represent the Gold Coast.”

JMW said it had worked closely alongside GOLDOC over the past three years to develop the ceremonies.

“We share GOLDOC’S disappointment at the level of criticism targeted at specific aspects of last night’s ceremony,” it said in a statement.

The decision denied television viewers the chance to watch retiring para-sports veteran Kurt Fearnley, who won gold in the men’s wheelchair marathon, carry the flag into the venue.

Organising committee chairman Peter Beattie has admitted the decision was wrong and has apologised to Fearnley.

The champion agreed with Beattie that organisers had “got it wrong”, but he stopped short of any further criticism.

“Right now, we have just finished the best and most inclusive Games we have ever had,” Mr Fearnley said.

“It’s the best two weeks of my life ... Let’s just move on and remember the Games as the absolute success that it was.”

Queensland Commonwealth Games Minister Kate Jones has praised Mr Beattie for taking responsibility but said many people felt let down.

Ms Palaszczuk said that despite the closing ceremony falling flat, the Games were still a great success.

“We had over 1500 trade delegates out here and they are very impressed with what they’ve seen here in Queensland,” she said.