Unknown to most of you,the Commomwealth Games opened last night in Melbourne in front of 81,000 people at the MCG. There are 71 countries & 4500 althletes are completing over the next 11 days.

http://www.melbourne2006.com.au

I watched a one hour highlight package on CBC Newsworld last night of the opening ceremonies and they looked fabulous! It has been a few years since I was last in Melbourne but it was neat to recognize so many of the sights. The TV shots from overhead - with the brightly lit floats moving up the Yarra River, combined with the fireworks from the roof of the MCG and off the top of many of the downtown office towers - were really quite spectacular. The CBC announcers were saying that possibly as many as one billion people would be watching the ceremonies. Most in India I presume, with Delhi being the host city for the next Games in 2010. I've almost gotten over the fact that they beat my hometown of Hamilton by one vote for the right to those games.

I thought that some of the staging and great visuals, lighting, music and acrobatics during the ceremonies completely blew away anything that I recall at the Turin Winter Olympics. I suspect that because what I saw was all edited down into a nice neat one hour package I may have missed some less impressive aspects of the ceremonies though.

What I did see was great though. Well done Melbourne!

I guess the CBC blew their budget on Turin and figured there would not be that much interest in summer sports at this time of year up here so close on the heals of the Winter Olympics. So we are stuck with just a one hour highlight package each day on CBC Newsworld.

Pat

Well hopefully they will show us alot of Alexandre Despatie once diving starts. wink

Just got a call last night from the BF who is in Melbourne visiting a sick uncle. Amazed me when he said he had been invited to see a gymnastics competition or something and that HE IS ACTUALLY GOING! I couldn't get him to watch 3 seconds of any sport here at home. The stress of visiting with his hypochodriac uncle must be intense. Hope he enjoys, and I'm looking forward to hearing more. And I know uncle will forgive him.

I didn't see the opening ceremonies. Only a saw a pic of a flying tramway.

Some of the sports are not well known to me, like women's netball. They have basketball too (but saw in the description on the website it's the first time at the Commonwealth games?). Lawn balls sounds very British.

Rugby sevens seems interesting. Described as less players than rugby (7 duh!) and faster-paced. It could be good on tv. Don't know if there is a pro league for rugby sevens or it serves as practice for standard rugby.

Scotland had a good first day at the swimming pool. South Africa won the men's 4x100 freestyle relay.

In gymnastics Canada won the gold in men's team. Olympic floor champ Kyle Shewfelt is back in competition.
Shewfelt in the middle

Rugby Sevens World Cup

Zeno

Netball is big in Australia, New Zealand, England & West Indies. It's a very fast game, Australian & New Zealand should play off for the gold. The Rugby 7's are great to watch. It's on @ the moment. Australia & New Zealand are already into the semi-finals. New Zealand just beat Canada. The game only goes for 2 harves of 7 minutes. England have just won & into the semi's

Hey, I am watching the games or at least the highlights that are shown on CBC. I love these games, always have.

Anyways, as to be expected the Aussies are ruling the pool, but WTH..Scotland with 3 gold medals in the swimming events. That is very impressive. I know the he best swimmers may not be there, but these guys are the up and comers, I guess that is why I like these games, almost as much as the Olympics...you get to see athletes that you normally would not see in other International events.

I have to ask though...I was watching the Mens cycling(Kierin)(sp??) and the Triathalon, and what is up with you Aussies....what I mean is..the suits leave little to the imagination, and WHOA, those guys were not only talented in their events, it looked liked like they were given some extra "Talent" down below.

And Asafa Powell is wearing those dark compression shorts in the preliminaries - can't see a damn thing. :mad: Not that that's the only thing I'm interested in. wink

If I'm not the only one who was clueless about netball, here is a page talking about it.
Netball from wikipedia

"Netball rules do not permit players to take more than one step in possession of the ball. Consequently, the only way to move the ball towards the goal is to throw the ball to a teammate. The ball cannot be held by one person for more than 3 seconds at any one time. This, combined with the restrictions on where players can move, ensures that everyone on the team is regularly involved in play."

As for rugby sevens, I read it was rejected as new sport for the 2012 Olympics. Too bad, it sounds good for TV.

New Zealand won the gold.
Soseni Anesi (shirtless) and Josh Blackie
England silver and Fiji bronze. No medal for Australia.
Niue Island haka

There is no coverage of the games on French Canadian TV, they mostly just talk about it during sports news when a local athlete wins a medal.

The Aussie men did not do as well as the Aussie women in the pool.

I read Leisel Jones made a world record in the 100m breaststroke. A world record also in a women's relay.

Sunday I saw some coverage on CBC. There was the women's marathon exciting finish: two women enter the stadium at the same time, the crowd cheers and the Australian won.

I have to ask though...I was watching the Mens cycling(Kierin)(sp??) and the Triathalon, and what is up with you Aussies....what I mean is..the suits leave little to the imagination

Not from keirin, but pics from other cyclists at the Games:
winner road time trial
Medalists road time trial

Winners points race

Scotland won the team sprint

Yannick Morin flexing

Isle of Man wins gold in scratch race

Alexandre Despatie wins second gold medal at the games. Link includes a pic Globe & Mail - Despatie wins

Despatie now has three golds (1m, 3m and synchro).

Some pics from Slam sports (don't know for how long they keep their pics posted)

underwater bubbles
with gold medal

face down
thumb up
rotating
observing

Arturo Miranda

Congratulations to the host country! Australia came way out on top in the total medal count (221), as it has in the last five Commonwealth Games, distantly followed by England (110) and Canada (86). Canadians did quite well in aquatics and gymnastics with Alexandre Despatie (nice pictures, Zeno wink ) and Kyle Shewfelt (from my city) being the best-known names, of course. But I noticed that Susan Nattrass won a bronze in trap shooting; at 54, she's one of the oldest competitors and has performed in the Olympics as well.

I was disappointed by the sparse coverage of the Melbourne Games by the Canadian media. I can't recall a previous Games with so little fanfare and promotion. I suppose it had something to do with the fact that the Torino Olympics were just completed a few weeks ago and also because at this time of year in the northern hemisphere, people just aren't "tuned into" summer-type sports.

I've never understood why England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland (and even Isle of Man and Guernsey!) are able to compete as if they were all separate nations, rather than under the single banner of the United Kingdom. I also don't understand how Mozambique ever acquired status as a Commonwealth member, considering it was a former Portuguese colony, not British (in fact, Mozambique even won a medal at the Melbourne Games). The next Commonwealth Games will be held in Delhi in 2010, a first for India, and I think only the second time they have been held outside the usual Aus-NZ-Can-UK core group. Halifax has a bid for the '14 Games.

[ March 26, 2006, 09:33 PM: Message edited by: Marc ]

Australia really dominates the medal count with double the number of medals of second place England.

They should do winter Commonwealth games and see which country dominates! (not many country would atttend though)

I've put some Alexandre Despatie pics in the hot swimmers thread in the hot jock section.

As for Mozambique, I searched and found this explanation from Wikipedia on Commonwealth.


"There is only one member of the present Commonwealth which has never had any constitutional link to the British Empire or a Commonwealth member. Mozambique, a former Portuguese colony, was admitted in 1995 on the back of the triumphal re-admission of South Africa and Mozambique's first democratic elections, held in 1994. The move was supported by Mozambique's neighbours, all of whom were members of the Commonwealth and who wished to offer assistance in overcoming the losses incurred as a result of the country's opposition to white minority regimes in Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) and South Africa. In 1997, amid some discontent, Commonwealth Heads of Government agreed that Mozambique's admission should be seen as a special case and not set a precedent."