Commonwealth Games 2006

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Commonwealth Games 2006
2006 Commonwealth Games logo
venue Melbourne , Australia
participating countries 71
Participating athletes 4049
Competitions 247 in 16 sports
Opening ceremony March 15, 2006
Closing ceremony March 26, 2006

The 18th Commonwealth Games took place from March 15 to 26, 2006 in the Australian city ​​of Melbourne . It was the biggest sporting event ever held in Melbourne. It even eclipsed the 1956 Summer Olympics .

247 competitions were held in the sports of badminton , basketball , bowls , boxing , weightlifting , hockey , athletics , netball , cycling , 7-a-side rugby , shooting , swimming (including synchronized swimming and diving ), squash , table tennis , triathlon and gymnastics (incl. Rhythmic gymnastics ). 4049 athletes from 71 countries took part.

For the first time ever there was a "goodwill partner", the charity Plan International Australia . The mascot of the games was Karak , a Banks Black Cockatoo .

Highlights

Opening ceremony

"Floating tram"

The opening ceremony took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. The first highlight was the floating in of an over 80-year-old Melbourne tram car . Numerous cultural performances followed. The invasion of the teams did not take place in alphabetical order as usual, but arranged according to regions. They were musically accompanied by the Australian band The Cat Empire . Swimmer Adam Pine took the oath of the athletes and John Landy handed the baton to Queen Elizabeth II as the last relay runner of the Queen's Baton Relay . The Queen read the message that she had put on the baton exactly one year earlier and opened the games. Finally, Delta Goodrem sang the official song Together We Are One as the Melbourne night sky lit up with fireworks .

Sporting events

Athletics: Australia had the most winners, ahead of Jamaica and Kenya. Three athletes each won two gold medals: the Australians Nathan Deakes and Jana Pittman and the Jamaican Sherone Simpson .

Cycling: England celebrated a triple victory in the 4,000-meter individual pursuit; Paul Manning won ahead of Rob Hayles and Steve Cummings . Together they also won the team pursuit. After a break of 20 years, Mark Cavendish was able to win a gold medal for the Isle of Man again. The most successful track cyclist was the Australian Ryan Bayley with two gold and one bronze medal. Ten out of twelve medals in road races went to Australia.

Swimming: As expected, the Australian swimmers were in a class of their own and won 16 out of 19 possible gold medals. The most successful was Lisbeth Lenton with five wins. Leisel Jones set a new world record over 100 m breaststroke, as did the Australian individual medley relay ( Sophie Edington , Leisel Jones, Jessicah Schipper , Lisbeth Lenton). The men's races were far more even, with winners from eight different countries.

Other sports: In the women's squash singles, Australian Natalie Grinham beat her sister Rachael; the former also won mixed and, together with her sister, doubles. The Canadian Alexandra Orlando won all six competitions in rhythmic gymnastics. Athletes from India dominated the shooting competitions, making up 16 out of 40 winners.

Closing ceremony

The closing ceremony also took place at the Melbourne Cricket Ground. It started with fireworks, followed by musical performances by Paul Kelly , Ben Lee , the BodyRockers and Sarah Blasko . The Commonwealth flag was hoisted to the sound of a Wurundjeri choir. Then the host of the next Commonwealth Games introduced itself, the Indian capital New Delhi . Numerous well-known Indian film stars danced typical Bollywood scenes, among them Rani Mukerji , Saif Ali Khan and Aishwarya Rai . Accompanied by Lara Dutta and Priyanka Chopra , the mascot, the tiger Sheba , walked through the stadium and greeted the spectators. Prince Edward then officially declared the Games over. The celebration ended with further musical and comedic performances ( Casey Donovan , Dame Edna Everage , John Farnham ).

Competition venues

The 2006 Commonwealth Games competitions were held at the following locations.

In Melbourne

Melbourne Cricket Ground
Telstra Dome

Outside of Melbourne

  • Ballarat Minerdome, Ballarat : basketball
  • Bendigo Stadium, Bendigo : basketball, shooting
  • Geelong Arena, Geelong : basketball
  • Lysterfield Park: mountain bike
  • Traralgon Sports Stadium, Traralgon : basketball

Sports and schedule

The table below shows the schedule. The links in the first column lead to pages with detailed results. The yellow boxes show the number of decisions made on the day, and the last column shows the total number of competitions in the individual sports.

     Opening ceremony      qualification      decision      Graduation ceremony
March 15th 16. 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23. 24. 25th 26th
To celebrate
badminton 1 5 6th
basketball 1 1 2
Bowls 2 2 2 8th
Boxing 11 11
Weightlifting 2 2 2 2 2 2 2 1 1 16
hockey 1 1 2
athletics 3 10 8th 6th 8th 9 9 53
Netball 1 1
Cycling 3 3 3 3 2 2 2 18th
Rhythmic sports gymnastics 2 4th 6th
7-a-side rugby 1 1
shoot 6th 4th 6th 5 4th 4th 6th 3 2 40
swim 5 4th 9 6th 11 7th 42
squash 2 3 5
Synchronized swimming 2 2
Table tennis 2 1 2 3 8th
Triathlon 2 2
do gymnastics 1 1 2 5 5 14th
Diving 3 2 3 2 10
March 15th 16. 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd 23. 24. 25th 26th

participating countries

participating countries

Medal table

space country gold silver bronze total
1 AustraliaAustralia Australia 84 69 68 221
2 EnglandEngland England 36 40 34 110
3 CanadaCanada Canada 26th 29 31 86
4th IndiaIndia India 22nd 17th 11 50
5 South AfricaSouth Africa South Africa 12 13 13 38
6th ScotlandScotland Scotland 11 7th 11 29
7th JamaicaJamaica Jamaica 10 4th 8th 22nd
8th MalaysiaMalaysia Malaysia 7th 12 10 29
9 New ZealandNew Zealand New Zealand 6th 12 13 31
10 KenyaKenya Kenya 6th 5 7th 18th
Complete medal table

Web links

Commons : Commonwealth Games 2006  - Collection of Images, Videos and Audio Files