2006 Commonwealth Games

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Template:Commonwealth Games| Athletes participating =approx. 4,500| Events = 247 in 16 sports| Opening ceremony =March 15, 2006 | Closing ceremony =March 26, 2006 | Officially opened by =Queen Elizabeth II| Officially closed by =HRH Prince Edward, The Earl of Wessex | Queen's Baton =John Landy | Stadium =Melbourne Cricket Ground | Motto =United by the moment | }}

The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Australia between March 15 and March 26. It was the largest sporting event ever to be staged in Melbourne, eclipsing the 1956 Summer Olympics in terms of the number of teams competing, athletes competing, and events being held.

The site for the opening and closing ceremonies was the Melbourne Cricket Ground which was also used during Melbourne's 1956 Olympic Games.

The mascot for the games was Karak[1], a Red-tailed Black Cockatoo (a threatened species).

For the first time ever, the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games appointed a Goodwill Partner, Plan International Australia.

Contents

Sports

Template:Main

The 2006 Commonwealth Games included 16 sports, with 12 individual sports and 4 team sports. In total there are 247 events at the Games.

Four of these sports are further broken down into separate disciplines, making a total of 24 disciplines:

  • Aquatics: diving, swimming, synchronised swimming.
  • Cycling: track, road, mountain bike.
  • Gymnastics: artistic, rhythmic.
  • Shooting: clay target, pistol, small bore and air rifle, full bore rifle.

The athletics, swimming, table tennis and weightlifting sports include fully integrated events for elite athletes with a disability (EAD). These events are included in the official medal tally.

Template:SportsAt2006CommonWealthGames

Medals table

Host nation highlighted; sorted in terms of most gold medals. Template:2006 Commonwealth Games medal count

Calendar

Template:Start box |- |bgcolor=#00cc33|   ●   ||Opening ceremony|| bgcolor=#3399ff|   ●   ||Event competitions || bgcolor=#ffcc00|   ●   ||Event finals||bgcolor=#ee3333|   ●   ||Closing ceremony |- Template:End box Template:Start box |- ! March !! 15th ! 16th ! 17th ! 18th ! 19th ! 20th ! 21st ! 22nd ! 23rd ! 24th ! 25th ! 26th |- | Ceremonies || bgcolor="#00cc33" align="center" | || || || || || || || || || || || bgcolor="#ee3333" align="center" | |- | Athletics || || || || || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || |- | Badminton || || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | |- | Basketball || || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || || |- | Boxing || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| |- | Cycling|| ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center||| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center||| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center||| ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center| |- | Diving || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center| |- | Gymnastics || ||bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ||bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ||bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●●●●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●●●●|| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●|| bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●●● |- | Hockey || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || || || |- | Lawn Bowls || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || |- | Netball || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || || || |- | Rugby 7s || || bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || || || || || |- | Shooting || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || || || |- | Squash || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| |- | Swimming || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center| || bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center| || bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center| || bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || || |- | Synchronised Swimming || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || |- | Table Tennis || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|● || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || |- | Triathlon || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || |- | Weightlifting || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center||| || || || |- ! March !! 15th ! 16th ! 17th ! 18th ! 19th ! 20th ! 21st ! 22nd ! 23rd ! 24th ! 25th ! 26th Template:End box

Highlights

Opening Ceremony - March 15

2006 Commonwealth Games Opening Ceremony
Both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Yarra River were centrepieces for the ceremony, which included many fireworks, and other spectacle. The Games were opened by Queen Elizabeth II, in her capacity as Head of the Commonwealth. The Queen is also Head of State of a number of Commonwealth countries.

Day 1 - March 16

Cycling
England managed a clean sweep of the 4,000 m individual pursuit gold medal on the cycle track. Paul Manning beat fellow team mate Rob Hayles in the final. Steve Cummings won the bronze medal race. Australian Ben Kersten manages to beat the World and Olympic champions in the 1 km time trial.
Swimming
Scotland's Caitlin McClatchey beat Australia's Libby Lenton in the Women's 200m Freestyle Final, setting a new Games record of 1:57.25. England's Melanie Marshall came in third. David Carry of Scotland has won the 400 m Freestyle Final, winning the second swimming gold for his country. Canadian Andrew Hurd picked up the silver in 3:49.08 and David Davies from Wales came third. Moss Burmester from New Zealand won gold in the 200m Butterfly in a new New Zealand and Commonwealth record time of 1:56.64.
Weightlifting
The Games' first Gold medal was awarded in the Women’s Weightlifting (48kg class) to Kunjarani Devi Nameirakpam from India. Marilou Dozois-Prevost from Canada won the silver, and Erika Yamazaki of Australia picked up the bronze.

Day 2 - March 17

Cycling
Australians Kate Bates and Rochelle Gilmore get gold and silver respectively in the Women’s 25 km Points Race, repeating their Manchester Games results. Their teamate Alexis Rhodes took ninth place after being seriously injured in Germany in an accident that took the life of Amy Gillette, in whose honour all three dedicated their ride.
Rugby Sevens
New Zealand win the gold medal at the Telstra Dome with a convincing 29-21 win over England. Fiji win the bronze medal with a 24-17 win over Australia in a game marred by a serious injury to Australian player Scott Fava.
Swimming
Australia gets all three medals in both the Women's 50 m Butterfly and Women's 50 m Breastroke.

Day 3 - March 18

Swimming
Australia swept gold, silver, and bronze in both the Women's 50 m Breaststroke and the 50 m Butterfly. Leisel Jones and Danni Miatke, respectively, won the golds.
Triathlon
Day 3 saw the Australians and New Zealanders completely dominate the triathlon event. After missing out on qualification for the 2004 Athens Olympics, Emma Snowsill took the gold medal with a time of 1:58:02.59. New Zealand secured silver (Samantha Warriner), bronze (Andrea Hewitt) and fourth place for the Women's event. Continuing Australia's dominance in the Triathlon, Brad Kahlefeldt won gold in the men's triathlon event with a time of 1:49:16. Australian Peter Robertson was just beaten by New Zealander, Bevan Docherty for silver, while Robertson took the bronze.
Cycling
Australian cyclist Ryan Bayley won the Men's Sprint, his second gold medal for these Games.

Day 4 - March 19

Athletics
Australian Kerryn McCann successfully defends her 2002 Commonwealth Games gold medal title by winning the women's marathon event with a time of 2:30:50.
Athletics
Tanzania retained the men's marathon title, Samson Ramadhani taking the gold. Kenya's Fred Mogaka took silver, and England's Dan Robinson took the bronze.
Cycling
The Isle Of Man won their first Commonwealth gold in 20 years, when Mark Cavendish won the men's Scratch Race final. Cavendish held off Australia's Ashley Hutchinson on the final bend to triumph, with Scotland's James McCallum claiming bronze.
Swimming
World champion Jessicah Schipper of Australia swam a Games record in beating team-mate Libby Lenton for the women's 100m butterfly gold.

Day 5 - March 20

Athletics
Australian Craig Mottram and crowd favourite, is edged out by Augustine Choge in the men's 5000 m by 2 seconds. Choge won in a Games-record time of 12 min 56.41 s. At one stage during the race Mottram ran with 3 Kenyan racers in front of him and 3 Tanzanian racers behind him.
Athletics
Asafa Powell, world record holder, wins the men's 100 m sprint in a time of 10.03 seconds, ahead of Nigeria's Soji Fasuba and the Trinidadian Marc Burns. His Jamaican compatriot, Sheri-Ann Brooks won the women's 100 m in a personal best time of 11.19 s, ahead of South Africa's Geraldine Pillay and Delphine Antangana, of Cameroon.
Squash
The Grinham sisters (Australia) battled for the Gold medal. Natalie triumphed over Rachel 2-9 9-6 9-1 9-6. Peter Nicol won his third Commonwealth Games gold medal. He previously won the singles title in 1998, and the doubles in 2002. He recaptured the singles title in four games, defeating Australia's David Palmer 9-5 10-8 4-9 9-2.
Swimming
Scotland won two more gold medals in the pool, with Caitlin McClatchey and Gregor Tait each winning their second titles in the 400m freestyle and 200m individual medley respectively. Australia's Leisel Jones set the first world record of the swimming competition, breaking her own record in the 100m breastroke with a time of 1:05.09.

Day 6 - March 21

Swimming
The Australian women's swimming team again asserted their dominance in the pool, breaking the 4 x 100m Medley Relay world record in a time of 3:56.30, over a second faster than that set by the Australian women's swimming team in the 2004 Athens Olympics. The Australian women completed one of the most successful campaigns in games' history, finishing with 16 gold medals, just 3 short of the entire meet's offerings. The Australian men's swimming team finishes on a successful note, winning the 4 x 100m Medley Relay. This was one of their least successful games meets with 3 gold medals.
Athletics
The Kenyan women finish with Lucy Wangui (31:29.66) and Evelyne Nganga (31:30.86) gold and silver respectively in the 10,000m run. Wangui overtook Nganga in the final straight, after Nganga attempted to break away. Mara Yamauchi of England was third.
Athletics
Dean Macey of England overcame injury to win his first major title in the men's Decathlon. Maurice Smith of Jamaica took silver and Australian Jason Dudley earned bronze.

Day 7 - March 22

Athletics
New Zealander Valerie Vili won gold in the women's shot put, setting a new Commonwealth Games record of 19.66 metres.

Day 8 - March 23

Athletics

Australian Jana Pittman delighted the home crowd by retaining her 400m hurdles title with Britons Natasha Danvers-Smith (England) and Lee McConnell (Scotland) picking up silver and bronze.
Jamaica won gold and silver in the women's 200m with Sherone Simpson finishing ahead of Veronica Campbell and South African Geraldine Pillay in third.

Cycling

England's Liam Killeen led an England one-two in the men's mountain bike cross country race. The 23-year-old eased home in two hours 13.11 minutes, ahead of team-mate Oli Beckingsale.

Shooting

India's Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore won gold medal in Men's Double Trap.

Day 9 - March 24

Athletics
Australian Nathan Deakes won the mens 50km walk in a time of 3:42:53, beating the previous record set by him at the 2002 Manchester Commonwealth Games by over 10 minutes. New Zealander Tony Sargisson took silver medal in 3:58:05 while Australia's Christopher Erickson took the bronze in 3:58:22.
Basketball
The Australian men's team beat New Zealand 81-76 to win the first gold medal in this sport at the Commonwealth Games. The English men's team beat Nigeria 80-57 to take the bronze.

Day 10 - March 25

Aquatics
Canadian Blythe Hartley won the Women's 3m Springboard final with 690.05 points. Australians Chantelle Newbery and Kathryn Blackshaw took silver and bronze repectively.
Australian Matthew Helm won the Men's 10m Platform with 1085.60 points. Silver went to England's Peter Waterfield with 1030.50 points and bronze went to Canadian Alexandre Despatie with 1016.95 points.
Athletics
England's Nicholas Nieland won the Men's Javelin with a season best throw of 80.10m. Australians William Hamlyn Harris and Oliver Dziubak both threw 79.89m with William Hamlyn Harris securing silver on a countback throw of 79.48 on his final thow. Oliver Dziubak took bronze on his countback throw of 78.43.
Nick Willis, gold medallist in the 1500 metres in a time of 3:38.49 mins, became the first athlete from New Zealand to win a track medal for twenty-four years.
Boxing
England dominated the boxing finals day, with Don Broadhurst, Frankie Gavin, James Russan, David Price, and Stephen Smith winning gold medals and Darran Langley winning silver.
Scotland's Kenny Anderson won the Light Heavyweight gold after defeating his opponent, Adura Olalehin, 23-19 after fighting back from 7-13 down after two rounds. During the fight, Olalehin had four points, the same as the margin of victory, awarded against himself for repeatedly holding Anderson.

Day 11 - Closing Ceremony - March 26

Gymnastics
Canadian Alexandra Orlando completed the rhythmic gymanstics competition having won six gold medals - a gold in every rhythmic gymnastics event - to become the fourth competitor to win six gold medals at a single Commonweath Games.
Cycling
Australians Natalie Bates and Matthew Hayman win the women's and men's road races respectively.
Hockey
In the men’s final, the host nation beat Pakistan 3-0, after leading 1-0 before the break. In the bronze medal play-off, England lost to Malaysia 2-0.
Netball
New Zealand defeats Australia 60-55 in the gold medal match, to become the first country other than Australia to win Commonwealth Games gold in the sport.
2006 Commonwealth Games Closing Ceremony
Both the Melbourne Cricket Ground and the Yarra River were again centrepieces for the ceremony. The games were closed by HRH Prince Edward.

Venues

The following venues were used at the 2006 Commonwealth Games.The sport(s) which were played at that venue is listed after it.

Melbourne venues

Image:Mcg internal odi medium.jpg Image:Telstra Dome Panoramic.jpg

Regional and suburban venues

Ballarat
Ballarat Minerdome: Basketball
Bendigo
Bendigo Stadium: Basketball
Wellsford Rifle Range: Full Bore Shooting
Geelong
Geelong Arena: Basketball
Lysterfield Park
State Mountain Bike Course: Mountain Bike Cycling
Traralgon
Traralgon Sports Stadium: Basketball

Impact on host nation

Early concerns have arisen about the large cost of staging the Games, with projected costs likely to be over 1 billion Australian dollars and a high likelihood the state government will have to cover the expense. The cost has been described in local media as excessive for what many regard as a non-premier sports event.

Melbourne's premier sporting ground, the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), has been recently redeveloped in preparation for the Games. An athlete's village in the inner suburb of Parkville housed approximately 7,000 athletes and support staff during the Games, and is now being transformed into commercial housing with a distinctly eco-friendly image. The creation of this village has attracted controversy, with critics claiming it was created by alienating public parkland, while proponents maintain that it represents the renewal of an otherwise derelict inner-city area.

The change from Daylight Saving Time to Standard Time in Australian states that follow it has been pushed back from March 26 to April 2 for 2006 to avoid affecting the games. In order to deal with the change, software company and official technology partner of the Games, Microsoft released a daylight savings patch for their Windows line of operating system. However, they did not modify the start and end rule for the time zones affected, but instead added new timezones with the words "(Commonwealth Games)" which caused various issues with many software applications, including Microsoft Outlook and several accounting packages.

In addition, state and private schools amended their usual term times so as to allow the first term end-of-term holidays to coincide with the Games. [2] This has severely disrupted the timetable for the VCE leaving many students under more stress than is usually expected at this timeTemplate:Citeneeded.

Melbourne's public transport system - train, tram and bus - ran to altered timetables with some amended or substituted services for the duration of the Games. For the most part, timetabled services were unchanged but suffered due to higher loads. [3]

Broadcasting

Participating nations

Image:Commonwealth games 2006 countries map.PNGThere were 71 countries, territories and bodies competing at the 2006 Commonwealth Games[7]. The only difference between the countries competing at these games from the 2002 games is the absence of Zimbabwe, which has now withdrawn from the Commonwealth of Nations. See also Gallery of Logos of Commonwealth Games Associations at the 2006 Commonwealth Games
Template:Commonwealth Games Associations at the 2006 Commonwealth Games

Missing athletes

Template:Ref

On 20 March 2006 it was reported that two athletes had gone missing from the Commonwealth Games village: Tanzanian boxer Omari Idd Kimweri and Bangladeshi runner Mohammad Tawhidul Islam.Template:Ref

On 22 March 2006 it was reported that seven athletes from Sierra Leone (three women and four men) had also disappeared. A further seven Sierra Leonean athletes also went missing during the course of the Games, bringing the total runaway count to fourteen (two thirds of the team). Victoria Police believed that they had fled to Sydney where the Sierra Leonean community is much larger than Melbourne's.

Two hours before the Closing Ceremony on 26 March, officials from the Cameroon team reported to police that nine of their members had also vanished.

These incidents were not without precedence: 27 athletes similarly disappeared from the 2002 Commonwealth Games in Manchester, England (21 from Sierra Leone, 5 from Bangladesh and one from Pakistan), and over 80 athletes and officials overstayed their visas after the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.Template:Ref

On request of Sierra Leone officials, the Commonwealth Games Federation cancelled those athletes' Games accreditation, allowing the Australian Department of Immigration and Multicultural Affairs (DIMA) to cancel their visas at midnight on Monday 27 March, and begin investigating their disappearance. Template:Wikinews At 7.20am on that day, New South Wales Police located six of the Sierra Leonean athletes in a house at Harbord near Manly Beach in Sydney. All six indicated they wished to seek political asylum in Australia, and were granted bridging visas by DIMA while their refugee applications were arranged. The athletes claimed to have been subjected to violence and torture in their home country; seventeen-year-old Isha Conteh stated she could be forced into female circumcision if she returned.Template:Ref On Tuesday 28 March, six further Sierra Leoneans turned themselves in to immigration authorities in Sydney and were also granted bridging visas.Template:Ref

Two of the missing Cameroon athletes were found in Perth, Western Australia.

References

  1. Template:Note Template:Cite news
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  4. Template:Note ABC
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Notes
  1. Template:Note The four Home Nations of the United KingdomEngland, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland — send separate teams to the Commonwealth Games, as do the three Crown DependenciesJersey, the Isle of Man and Guernsey — and 9 of the 14 British Overseas Territories. The Cook Islands and Niue, non-sovereign territories in free association with New Zealand, and Norfolk Island, an external territory of Australia, also compete separately. There are thus 53 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, but 71 competing teams at the Commonwealth Games.

External links

Template:Commonscat Template:Wikinewsportal

Official websites
Other sites
Political opposition to the Games


Commonwealth Games
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