A quick guide to sporting spectacle
Eilidh Doyle’s joy at leading out Scotland - and whole parade of athletes at opening ceremony FACTFILE
WHEN April 4 to 15. WHERE ● The majority of the events will take place in three clusters on the Gold Coast, with the opening and closing ceremonies and athletics held at the Carrara Stadium. ● Track cycling and shooting will be held in Brisbane. ● Preliminary round games in the basketball competition will be held in Townsville and Cairns. THE NUMBERS ● 18 sports; seven para-sports. ● 10 core sports – athletics, badminton, boxing, hockey, lawn bowls, netball, rugby sevens, squash, swimming, weightlifting. ● Eight optional sports – basketball, beach volleyball, cycling, gymnastics, shooting, table tennis, triathlon, wrestling. ● 275 gold medals. ● 71 nations and territories. ● 6600-plus athletes. THE HISTORY ● The Commonwealth Games were first contested in 1930 as the Empire Games (a title that lasted until in 1950) in Hamilton, Canada. Just 400 athletes from 11 countries attended. ● Contested every four years, except for 1942 and 1946 due to World War II and its aftermath. ● In 1966, Kingston in Jamaica became the first city outside of Britain, Australia, Canada or New Zealand to host the games. ● In 1998, Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia became the first Asian city to host the games. ● Questions were raised over the future of the games after the 2010 event in Delhi was blighted by construction delays, budget over-runs, poor living conditions at the athletes’ village, a number of high-profile withdrawals and low spectator numbers. ● The huge success of Glasgow 2014 put the Commonwealth Games firmly back on the sporting calendar. ● Durban in South Africa was chosen to host the next games in 2022 but was stripped of the event in March last year after a failure to meet promises contained in the bid. The 2022 event was then awarded to Birmingham. THE GOLD COAST GAMES ● Gold Coast becomes the fifth Australian city to host the Commonwealth Games after Sydney (1938), Perth (1962), Brisbane (1982) and Melbourne (2006). ● It was awarded the bid in November 2011 after beating Hambantota in Sri Lanka. ● The mascot, Borobi, is a blue koala with indigenous markings on its body. Borobi is an Aboriginal term for koala. ● Beach volleyball and women’s sevens are making their debut.