The opening ceremony of the 22nd Commonwealth Games will take place in Birmingham, England.
More than 5,000 athletes representing 72 countries and territories will compete in 19 sports and 280 medal events in the West Midlands from July 28 to August 8.
The opening and closing ceremonies and athletics will take place at Alexander Stadium, while Edgbaston hosts the cricket with other sports spread across the region, although track cycling will take place in London.
Veteran bands Duran Duran and Black Sabbath are expected to deliver a few blasts from the past at the opening ceremony before Tom Walsh and Joelle King lead the Kiwis into the stadium as Commonwealth athletes join the party.
New Zealand has sent 233 athletes – with a record 54 percent of women on the team. They will try to at least match the effort of 2018 on the Gold Coast – 15 gold medals and 46 in total.
The first Kiwi athletes to come into action are the lawn bowl teams, while Olympic bronze medalist Hayden Wilde is a strong medal hope in the triathlon.
More than a billion people are expected to watch the opening ceremony, organizers say, and more than 1.25 million tickets have been sold for the Games.
At a cost of about $1 billion ($NZ2.38 billion), that’s not bad bang for the buck, especially when compared to top-tier extravaganza like an Olympics, which could cost a host city between $15 billion (2021). Tokyo Summer Games) to $51 billion (2014 Sochi Winter Games).
Birmingham’s ticket sales and viewership expectations may impress, but when it comes to finding a host, the “Friendly Games” have been a tough sell for the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF).
Britain’s second city came to the rescue of the CGF in 2017, stepping in as 2022 organizers after Durban, South Africa, was stripped of the event for failing to deliver on promises made in the bid.
The search for a home for the 2026 Games was no less fraught, with Victoria, Australia finally handing over hosting duties in April, three years after a decision was due to be announced as bid-after-bid got cold feet and fell out of the running.
Only once since 1998 (Delhi 2010) have the Games not been held in Australia or Great Britain.
“I had no idea the magnitude and scale of this,” Birmingham 2022 chairman John Crabtree said at the CGF conference on Tuesday. A thousand days turned into a thousand sleepless nights.
“When people asked, ‘How’s the preparation going?’ I’d say – hands behind my back and fingers crossed – ‘We’ll be on time and on budget’.
“And here we are — we’re on time, on budget, and we’re here for you.”
Held every four years, the Commonwealth Games were once seen as a major event on the sports calendar, but lately have struggled to remain relevant to both athletes and the general public.
LIVE EVENTS
The Birmingham Games will receive wide coverage in Britain with the BBC covering many events live, while Australian media give it the full Olympic coverage, only News Corp Australia is sending a team of 17 reporters.
But Canada, host of the first Commonwealth Games in 1930, will not have a single reporter from the national broadcaster Canadian Press in Birmingham, while the national broadcaster CBC will provide coverage mainly through its streaming service.
A Commonwealth Games medal is no longer a must-have on an athlete’s resume.
For top swimmers and track and field athletes, the world championships were the main goal this summer.
Still, more than 5000 athletes representing 72 countries and territories will be in the West Midlands to participate in 19 sports and 280 medal events.
While many matches lack depth, there will be no shortage of big name names, especially in the pool with Australian Olympic champions Ariarne Titmus and Emma McKeon and England’s Adam Peaty in action.
South African Chad le Clos needs just one more medal to share the title of most decorated Commonwealth Games athlete of all time with 18.
On the track, Jamaican sprint queen Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce takes the spotlight alongside Scotland’s recently crowned world champion in the 1500m, Jake Wightman.
The women’s T20 cricket makes its debut at the Games in Birmingham and could be one of the highlights with bitter rivals Pakistan taking on India in a group stage clash.
The battle for first place on the medal table is expected to be another clash between Australia and England.
Four years ago, Australia on the Gold Coast topped the standings for the fourth time in the past five Commonwealth Games, winning 80 gold medals.
The Australians said they will look no less in Birmingham, bringing their second largest ever team of 433 athletes to the event.
– RNZ and Reuters