Official Melbourne 2006 thread

[Platypus]

For discussing the upcoming Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth Games.

Some of the details of the opening ceremony have been leaked, but nothing about the major ceremony inside the world's most famous stadium (if anyone wants to contest that, I point at the billion Indian Cricket fans).

I've got a ticket to the Badminton semi-finals, which is good enough for me.

I'm predicting Australia to win at least 50% of the medals

[Platypus]

Cricket is largely a tv and radio sport...
The game to sell the most stadium tickets in India is actually Football.

Perhaps so, but the MCG is still the venue that hosts the games that are broadcast on TV and the radio. Pretty much everyone in the cricketing world knows about the MCG.

[Platypus]

Cricket is largely a tv and radio sport...
The game to sell the most stadium tickets in India is actually Football.

Perhaps so, but the MCG is still the venue that hosts the games that are broadcast on TV and the radio. Pretty much everyone in the cricketing world knows about the MCG.

Oh yes, I wasn't contradicting you. ... though of course, that makes it no better known than all the major Indian and Pakistani cricket grounds.

Ah, but we also have everyone in the UK and Australia, who would struggle to name more then maybe two grounds on the subcontinent.

Then add the fact that it hosts heaps of other sports, and it's pretty famous. Other famous stadiums that come close, outside the subcontinent, would be Lords, Wembley and the Millenium Dome in the UK, Stade de France, Madison Square Gardens, and some of the South American soccer grounds, of course.

[Platypus]

Scotland should hopefully give us a modest tally of around half a dozen golds with cycling being our best bet. As long as we outdo Wales I'll be happy

Actually, all the anglo-celtic commonwealth countries are reasonably storng in cycling-certainly, Australia, New Zealand and Great Britain are. I'm not sure how that breaks down within the UK though. Canada isn't bad either, of course.

[Platypus]

I'm still waiting for the Commonwealth Winter Games so we can finally pWn the Aussies at something.

Mate, I'm fairly sure that only Australia, the UK, New Zealand and Canada would even bother to send competitors to that one. Maybe SAfrica, Pakistan and India...maybe

[Platypus]

remember how a while back melbourne was singled out (well, doubled out) alongside los angeles as a potential terrorist target?

The thought just entered my head that maybe this is what they were aiming for. :S

[Platypus]

BUMP

The Queen's Baton has crossed into Victoria; up near Mildura (very top west corner of VIC).

There are also tonnes of light green, blue and orange flags all over the city; Fed Square is all decked up in the livery, there are games-related TV ads; and Flinders Street Station almost looks clean. 26 days to go

[Platypus]

Australia is aiming for 208 medals-88 of them gold.

http://www.tvnz.co.nz/view/page/536641/661158

"Australia's Commonwealth Games boss Perry Crosswhite is more confident than ever of a record medal haul in Melbourne.

Less than a month out from the games, Crosswhite says Australia is well on target to top the medal table and she is hoping for a haul of 208 medals - including 88 gold.

The tally of 208 medals is one more than they won in Manchester, while 88 gold is one more than their record of 87 won at the 1994 Victoria Games. "

[Platypus]

10 days to go

Lor mayyer John So is very excitable of the possibeetee of a great time in the ceedee cennar and for awl of Malbon.

[Platypus]

5 days to go.

Everything is really getting into gear now. The signs are up for the road closures, the last minute ticket sales blitz is one, and the final dress rehearsal for the opening ceremony is tonight.

And i'm going!

Considering tickets for the real thing are $450 or something, and i'm getting this for free, I'm not overly dissapointed that it won't be quite as spectacular as the real thing, but i'm certainly looking forward to it, and the games in general.

It's taken a while, but I think Melburnians are finally stating to become "United by the moment". I know i'm certainly pretty excitied

[Platypus]

Well it was just the first dress rehearsal, but still, thumbs up.

I can't go into too much detail, but whilst parts of it were a bit boring, a couple of sections were absoutely excellent.

Rickie, it'll be on the news when they're on.

[Platypus]

STARTS TONIGHT!

Melbourne's very much read. Should be a good couple of weeks.

Predicted highlights:

Women's 100m freestyle swimming: Alice Mills, Jodie Henry and Libby Lenton (all AUS) have been beating each other's world records frequently over the past two years; all of them could win and it's pretty likely a world record will be set.

Final of the Netball: Almost certainly going to be Australia vs. New Zealand. There is no love lost whatsoever between the teams. In Machester, Australia won in triple overtime.

Men's 100m: Always a highlight of every games, features the world's fastest man, Asafa Powell (Jamaica).

Women's diving: With Malaysia, Singapore, Canada and Australia all fielding very strong teams, each contest is likely to be tight.

Men's Cycling: New Zealand and England will be hoping to stop an Australian sweep, but Canada, South Africa and the other home nations aren't weak, either.

Of course, other eents will shine, and some of these will be boring, but they're some of the key events to look out for.

[Platypus]

we're just 2 hours away...

[Platypus]

It's all ready to start-if you can watch it, I strongly recommend it. When I went to the dress rehearsal I was very impressed and I know you will be too

Melbourne's BUZZING. It might not be the olympics, but it's still massive, and to use a cliche, Melbourne is ready and waiting for the games to start.

[Platypus]

I officially apologise on behalf of the people of Melbourne for the cruddiness of that ceremony.

I'm livid.

[Platypus]

Day one medal tally:

country                      G   S   B      T    points
-------------------------------------------------------
AUSTRALIA                 3   4   4      11    21
SCOTLAND                 2   0   1       3      7
ENGLAND                   1   3   2       6      11
INDIA                         1   0   0       1      3
NEW ZEALAND           1   0   0       1      3
SOUTH AFRICA           1   0   0       1      3
CANADA                     0   2   1       3      5
WALES                      0    0   1       1      1

We're not doing as well as we expected, but we're still dominant-just under half the medals available.

Both England and Australia have had clean sweeps-England in the men's pursuit (cycling), and Australia in the women's 200m individual medley (swimming)

Scotland won two swimming golds and a cycling bronze; australia two cycling golds and a bronze, one weightlifting bronze, one swimming gold, 4 silver and 2 bronzes. Wales got a swimming bronze; India a weightlifiting gold; south africa and new zealand, both gold in swimming, Canada a bronze in swimming as well as a silver, and a silver in weightlifting. England won a gold, a bronze and three silvers in the cycling, and a bronze in the pool.

Ther's also something about a Malaysian winning gold in something, but it's not on the official medal tally, so...

All in all, a good start to the games.

[Platypus]

Is it just me or is anyone else annoyed that New Zealand perform the Haka at every bloody sporting event now and it seems that everyone must wait while they perform it?

Come on Kiwis- it's not intimidating, it's just annoying

Ka tu te ihiihi.

Ka tu te wanawana.

I disagree-I love the haka.

[Platypus]

By the way, four swimming golds to Scotland?

My sister said 'Michelle Smith would be proud' and I just might be inclined to agree with her :S

I want Scotland to do well, but they are doing suspiciously well.

[Platypus]

I would hope that Australa would be worrying more about Leisure Suit Larry up in Queensland that the Commonplace Games in Melbourne.  Altho both suffer from inflated numbers, since Larry would only be a Category 3 over here, not a Category 5.

Myeh. It destroyed some bananas. No big deal-and it is only catergory three now; it was catergory 5 when it was still at sea.

[Platypus]

This is not getting much coverage here.

That's probably because you've only won five gold-less then Scotland. Sure, you've got 13 silver and 10 bronze, but gold seems to be in short supply :S

India is the opposite-11 gold, 8 silver and 2 bronze.

[Platypus]

This is not getting much coverage here.

That's probably because you've only won five gold-less then Scotland. Sure, you've got 13 silver and 10 bronze, but gold seems to be in short supply :S

India is the opposite-11 gold, 8 silver and 2 bronze.

It has nothing to do with medals, Hugh. It has everything to do with the terrible timing of the event. Let's see, we have the WBC, the NCAA March Madness the CIS basketball finals, World Women's curling championship, the Brier, NHL, NBA, MLB spring training not to mention the Paralympics, the World Figure Skating championships and the World Speed Skating championships.

Aside from the Paralympics, nobody in the commonwealth cares about any of them but the Canadians-and the only other country that cares about the Paralympics is Australia.

Coincidentally, we won 41 medals yesterday :S

Medal update:

Australia           46           41         34         121         (254 points)
(UK)                  28           28         28         84           (168 points)
--England         18           22          15         55           (--113 points)
--Scotland         8             5           7           20           (--41 points)
--Wales            1              0           5           6             (--8 points)
--Isle of Man     1             0           1            2             (--4 points)
--Nth. Ireland    0            1            0           1             (--2 points)
India                14           8             4          26           (62 points)
Canada            7             17          15         39           (70 points)
South Africa      7             4            7          18           (36 points)
Malaysia           3             3            4          10           (19 points)
New Zealand    2             4            10        16           (24 points)
Nigeria             2              2            2          6             (12 points)
Jamaica            2             1             1          4             (9 points)
Singapore        1              2            3          6             (10 points)
Kenya              1              2            1          4             (8 points)
Cyprus             1             1             1          3             (6 points)
Papua New G   1             1             0          2             (5 points)
Pakistan           1             0             1          2             (4 points)
Ghana              1             0             0          1             (3 points) 
Sri Lanka          1             0             0          1             (3 points) 
Tanzania          1             0             0          1             (3 points)
Cameroon        0             1             2          3             (4 points)
Bahamas          0             1             0          1             (2 points)
Bangladesh      0             1             0          1             (2 points)
Malta                0             1             0          1             (2 points)
Trinidad & Tob  0             0             2          2             (2 points)
Fiji                    0             0             1          1              (1 point)
Seychelles        0             0             1          1              (1 point)

[Platypus]

This is not getting much coverage here.

That's probably because you've only won five gold-less then Scotland. Sure, you've got 13 silver and 10 bronze, but gold seems to be in short supply :S

India is the opposite-11 gold, 8 silver and 2 bronze.

It has nothing to do with medals, Hugh. It has everything to do with the terrible timing of the event. Let's see, we have the WBC, the NCAA March Madness the CIS basketball finals, World Women's curling championship, the Brier, NHL, NBA, MLB spring training not to mention the Paralympics, the World Figure Skating championships and the World Speed Skating championships.

Aside from the Paralympics, nobody cares about any of them but the Canadians-and the only other country that cares about the Paralympics is Australia.

Many if not most of what I listed are also cared about by Americans as well, not just Canadians. In fact, some are cared more. I cant also see how Australians would care about the Parylympics. You have like what, zero medals?

we got 2-a silver and a bronze.

BTW, i meant to say 'in the commonwealth' and edited in straight after posting.

[Platypus]

(UK)                  28           28         28         84           (168 points)
--England         18           22          15         55           (--113 points)
--Scotland         8             5           7           20           (--41 points)
--Wales            1              0           5           6             (--8 points)
--Isle of Man     1             0           1            2             (--4 points)
--Nth. Ireland    0            1            0           1             (--2 points)

The Isle of Man is not part of the UK.

Under which banner do they compete at the Olympics?

[Platypus]

With one day left, Australia has it's most ever medals, with 207, although we're still short of our target of 88 golds (we have 79). The next closest country, England, has 102 medals-104 less then us

Canada's finally winning some Gold, with 22 now, along with 29 silver and 27 bronze. Partially to thank is the absolutely, completely and thoroughly hot Alexandre Despatie, who I still remember winning gold in KL when he was 13 or 14. Alex:




I base my hair around him.

New Zealand, however, still struggles to get golden medals; only 5 of them along with 10 silver and 13 bronze. Wales has a similar problem; 3/5/10.

[Platypus]

Yes, Dave

Can I just say, I LOVED that closing ceremony. I didn't like the opening ceremony much at all, but this one was SO Melbourne.

The ballerinas in the football colours is just completely and utterly Melbourne. I also liked Dame Edna's song, and the Indian presentation was quite good, really, although the song is pretty awful. The speeches were, as always, boring, the musicians were generally quite good-although i'm sick of John Farnham. The best bit, though, without question, was the whole photoraph bit. That was a really nioce statement. I always prefer closing ceremonies, and whilst I think Melbourne's opening ceremony was worse then Sydney, Athens and Torino, it's closing ceremony absolutely creamed them all, and those of Manchester, SLC and even Torino.

Plus the fireworks were MAGNIFICENT.

So, Melbourne 2006 is over and even if I say it as a Melburnian, Melbourne put on the best Commonwealths ever and they were games of Olympic standard. Sure, the competition may have been a bit one-sided, but the commonwealth was truly embraced and these were primarly a Melbourne games, but then a games for the whole Commonwealth. It might be a tired organisation, but the vibrancy of Melbourne shone through and now the world truly knows that Australia is THE place for major sporting events and Melbourne is number one downunder.

GO MELBOURNE, GO AUSTRALIA, and for 2010, GO INDIA!