Commonwealth Games

[mike carey]

It will no doubt have escaped the attention of most participants in the forum but for the past week the Commonwealth Games have been underway on the Gold Coast in Australia. It's sort of a low rent Olympics for athletes from the Commonwealth. There are 53 countries, but a total of 70 something teams (the countries that form the UK compete separately and various territories (say the British Virgin Islands or the Cook Islands) compete separately.

 

There have been world records and the media highlight today was the attendance of Usain Bolt. There is also competition in sports that don't figure in the wider world of competitive sport. Think lawn bowls and netball (the latter a 7-a-side sport vaguely similar to basketball, played almost exclusively as a women's sport). (Canada and Australia split the women's and men's beach volleyball golds.)

 

One feature of the games is the incorporation of para sports in the main program, so we are seeing disabled events being reported in the same breath as able-bodied athlete events.