‘A door opener’
Situated two years either side of the Olympic Games, the Commonwealth Games have often proven to be a launchpad for future stars.
“The Commonwealth Games is where champions are made,” the president of Commonwealth Sport, Dr Donald Rukare, told AFP.
After storming to 100m gold in one of the Games’ blue riband events, Cameroon’s Emmanuel Eseme said the Commonwealth Games four years ago had kickstarted his career at the elite level.
“The Commonwealth Games has been like a door opener for me,” Eseme said after running 9.83s, despite sodden conditions in Scotland.
“Things started getting going at the last Commonwealth Games with the national record of 10.08. No one in my country ever thought someone from Cameroon was going to run 10.08, I did it in the Commonwealth Games. It was great and, you know, things have just been going well since.”
Australia ran away at the top of the medals table, hoovering up 171 medals, including 70 golds, followed by England, Canada and India. The New Zealand team were sixth with 10 golds.
Images from the Commonwealth Games: Zoe Hobbs, Kody Andrews (and fellow judo athletes) and Daniel Morton. Photos / Photosport
But the Commonwealth Games are the chance for the smaller and lesser known of the 74 nations and territories.
Jersey, Dominica and the British Virgin Islands were among those to come away from Glasgow with gold.
“This is where it all started for me and this is probably where it will end,” Dominica’s Olympic triple-jump champion Thea LaFond said. “It feels amazing to be a trailblazer for Dominica.”
The event also gives some athletes the chance to represent nations or territories that are grouped together at Olympics or international games level.
Fresh from breaking a 27-year-old world record for the mile, Josh Kerr was billed as the poster boy for the Games on home soil.
The Scotsman duly delivered with a dominant performance to deliver gold in the first running of the mile at the Commonwealth Games for 60 years.
“To have Flower of Scotland playing versus the GB [Great Britain] national anthem, it’s just different,” Kerr said. “Not many times in my career I’ll ever have that.”
The inclusivity of the “Friendly Games” was further enhanced by the largest ever para-sport programme, with six sports fully integrated, compared with the divide between the Olympics and the Paralympics.
Missing stars and empty stands
Commonwealth Sport CEO Katie Sadleir is confident the future of the Games is bright with more potential hosts, led by New Zealand, expressing interest for 2034 and beyond.
Yet experience shows even successful bids have failed to materialise.
This is the second consecutive Commonwealth Games to suffer a change of host, after Durban also pulled out for the 2022 Games.
India’s ambition to host the Olympics for the first time has been a driving factor behind Ahmedabad’s candidacy.
Where the motivation comes to fund the Commonwealth Games beyond its 100th anniversary is less clear.
The Games’ lack of appeal to athletes was also shown in those who decided not to turn up in Glasgow.
Alongside Kerr, the biggest draw in British athletics, England’s Keely Hodgkinson prioritised the upcoming European Athletic Championships.
Women’s 100m Olympic champion Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia and Canadian swimming sensation Summer McIntosh were among the other big names to skip the Games.
A lack of star power was reflected in a low-key atmosphere and plenty of empty seats, in stark contrast to 12 years ago when 1.3 million tickets were sold in the same city.
Glasgow may have saved the Commonwealth project for now, but the long-term health of the Games is far from guaranteed.
– AFP