The 2018 Commonwealth Games concludetoday! This year's edition has also been known as Commonwealth Games XXII and GoldCoast 2018. The games take place inQueensland, Australia, being the fifth time that country has hosted thegames. They have their origins in theBritish Empire Games, which began in 1930, and have been held under variousnames since then. The four Home Nationsof the United Kingdom, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland, all competeunder their own flags, along with 67 other countries. Australia has been dominant in many recenteditions of the games, including this year. Countries participating in this year's Games:
This year's Games was opened by His RoyalHighness, Charles, Prince of Wales onApril 4th, and continues through today. Centralvenue for the games is the newly constructed Carrara Stadium, in Gold CoastCity, which was also part of Australia's bid for the 2018 FIFA World Cup, whichwill instead be held in Russia. In thecurrent medal count, hosts Australia are far and away the leaders with 79 GoldMedals, England is second with 43, then India with 26, Canada with 15, and sharingfifth, New Zealand and South Africa each with 13 Gold Medals. In the overall medal count, Canada iscurrently in third place with 82 medals, India in fourth with 65. Today's men's competitions include Track andField (Athletics), Basketball, Badminton, Rugby Sevens, Squash and TableTennis. There will be a women's medalround in netball, which is an early version of something similar to basketball,which seems to exist primarily in this competition. Lawn Bowls is also a medalsport in the Commonwealth Games, along with so many other, more popularsports. Sadly, the Commonwealth Games has witnessedarguably its most gripping and distressing moment when Scotland's CallumHawkins collapsed while leading the men's marathon 2 kilometres from the finishline. He was leading by over twominutes, but apparently, the 82 degree heat (28C) got to be too much forhim. Aussie Mitch Larkin, a backstroker, was thestar of the show in the pool, and the aquatic competitions at the CommonwealthGames are always exciting. Larkin competed in five events, and took five golds.Larkin was a phenom in the water with victories in the 50m, 100m and 200mbackstroke events, and the 4x100m medley relay. But his star was trulyconfirmed in the individual 200m medley, showing his ability in all strokes ina sensational meet for the man from Buderim. High jumper Brandon Starc, brother ofcricketer Mitchell Starc, well known to readers of this space, took the goldmedal, almost breaking the Australian record. Gaurav Solanki became a hero to India after winning India's second Gold Medal ever in Boxing. Also, a new champion has ascended the throne as the number one ranked player on the World Badminton standards. He is Indian Kidambi Srikanth. His father admitted that he put his son into Badminton training to keep him from being a teen couch potato, he was accepted because his brother already trained there, and he knew his son would have a "government job." Young Kidambi succeeded quickly in his own right, took the Gold at the Commonwealth Games, and found himself ranked number one in the world, higher than even his elder brother! Ironically, Cricket is not a Commonwealth Games event, most likely becauseit falls in the wrong point in that season. Tragically, Water Polo is also omitted from the competitionschedule. Congratulations to the Commonwealth at having mounted yet another successful Games! -- Posted By Blogger to SR at 4/15/2018 12:36:00 AM -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "omnisport" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. Visit this group at https://groups.google.com/group/omnisport. For more options, visit https://groups.google.com/d/optout.
