Commonwealth Games Guide
Here in Melbourne, the 18th Commonwealth Games are underway and our traditionally sport mad city has become even more sport mad. There are so many events on offer that even the most dedicated sports fan cannot keep up with them all. Here is cool.com.au's guide to the events to watch.
The big lead up to the games was the Queen's baton relay. A message from the Queen welcoming the athletes to the games was carried inside a big baton with green flashing lights through all 71 countries of the Commonwealth, a journey which took 366 days and covered over 180,000 km. Once the Queen heard that the organisers were giving away free tickets to the opening ceremony to fill up the empty seats, she and Prince Philip hopped on a plane and came over. If she'd been a little bit more organised she could have saved everyone a lot of time and effort and brought the message with her.
Track Cycling - Sprint: Given the name of the event, you’d think that this would be an opportunity to see cyclists racing as hard as they can over 1,000 m but no, the race begins with two cyclists riding as slowly as they can and only towards the end do they realise that it’s a race and decide to ride fast.
Track Cycling - Kierin: The kierin is raced over eight laps of the velodrome but to make sure that they don't go too fast, competitors have to stay behind a motorbike for most of the race. They jostle for prime position behind the motorbike and when it leaves the track with a few laps to go, the cyclists are allowed to ride as fast as they can.
Triathlon: Not content to compete in just one sport, triathletes are masochists and do three in a row – 1,500 m of swimming, 40 km of cycling and 10 km of running. As you can imagine, this takes a long time to complete so there's plenty of time for the armchair sports enthusiast to have a nap during the race and still see most of the action.
Swimming - 200m Butterfly: Utter madness. Butterfly is tricky enough to swim over 50 m but 200 m is just silly. Why would anyone want to do it? I get tired just thinking about it.
Lawn Bowls: Lawn bowls allows the grey haired brigade to compete for their countries at an international level, swap recipes for pumpkin scones and brag about the achievements of their grandchildren. Lawn bowls has also been shown to be an effective cure for insomnia.
Synchronised Swimming - Solo: Synchronised swimming is well established as the silliest of the aquatic events. After all, how can we take seriously a sport where competitors jump into the pool in full make up, have sparkly bits on their swimming caps and spend most of their time upside down with only their legs sticking out of the water? The solo event puzzles me immensely, aren't they supposed to be synchronised with someone else?
Rhythmic Gymnastics: This is another sport where competitors wear full make up and have sparkly bits on their costumes. The use of music, balls, hoops and ribbons make it look more like a circus performance than competitive sport and would be more appropriate in the opening ceremony.
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