We’re here to win! Commonwealth powerhouses declare they will finish on top of medal table

GAME on, England.

There may be 72 countries in Birmingham for the Commonwealth Games but it’s the rivalry between the two big name teams that is the main event.

England fired the first shot this week when its Chef de Mission Mark England said the number one priority was to finish ahead of Australia on the medal tally.

But with the Australians forecasting more than 80 medals in the pool alone, that isn’t going to be an easy task.

At the last Commonwealth Games on the Gold Coast in 2018, host nation Australia won the Ashes battle with 198 medals, including 80 golds, compared to England’s 136 gongs, of which 45 were gold.

“Our aspiration is to top the medal table,” said Mark England, the aptly named chef de mission of Team England. ‘That is what we are here for.

“It will be a pretty good arm wrestle with Australia. Everyone wants to come to the host nation and do the best they can against them.

“But we have 429 athletes and 500 support staff who absolutely want to top the medal table — and we have a nation that wants to do that as well. We are going to give it everything.

“I can’t say where we will be in two weeks’ time because sport is not predictable. But everything we could have possibly done to support the athletes is in play.”

In England’s squad, there are more women than men — 226 to 203 — for the first time and there are 67 para athletes.”

Birmingham 2022 is the biggest multi-sport event in this country since London 2012.

Australia’s Chef de Mission Petria Thomas says the team was determined to finish at number one.

“I think, you know, we’ve made no secret of the fact that we’d love to finish on top of the medal tall,” she said.

“We had a very strong Commonwealth Games at home on the Gold Coast but we’re away from home and it’s always harder when you’re away. And we’re also on English home soil.

“So we’re well aware that it will be a fight but I think it the athletes will compete with such spirit they’ll fight every result.

“Hopefully we can give it a good crack and take that number one spot again.”