Delhi won the right to host the 2010 Games by defeating the Canadian city of Hamilton by 46 votes to 22 at the CGF General Assembly held in Montego Bay in November 2003.
HISTORY OF THE COMMON WEALTH GAMES
BIRTH OF THE COMMON WEALTH GAMES:
The Commonwealth Games, the Games was first proposed by Englishman, Astley Cooper in 1891 as a festival ". Cooper was responsible for the concept of a sporting contest amongst the countries of the British Commonwealth. He wrote an article in 1891 for the magazine ‘Greater Britain’, suggesting a festival combining sporting, military and literary events that would draw closer the ties and increase the goodwill and understanding of the Empire.
The holding of the first recorded Games between Empire athletes coincided with the celebrations in connection with the Coronation of His Majesty King George the Fifth in 1911, and was known as the 'Festival of Empire'.
The program consisted of track and field athletics, boxing, wrestling and swimming events, and a trophy in the form of a silver cup, 2ft 6in high and weighing 340oz, the gift of Lord Lonsdale, was presented to the winning country, which was Canada.
No further development took place until 1928, when the Olympic Games were in progress in Amsterdam. The splendid feelings of friendliness between the Empire athletes at that Olympiad re-vitalised the idea for the revival of Empire meetings.
The initiative of a Canadian, M M Robinson, led to the first official Commonwealth Games in 1930.
Support was forthcoming from England, Scotland, Wales and Ireland, with the result that strong teams were sent to Canada. Teams also came from Australia, New Zealand, Bermuda, British Guiana, Newfoundland and South Africa. The events at this meeting comprised track and field athletics, swimming, rowing, boxing and wrestling, and lawn bowls. While no points were allotted, it was fitting that Great Britain filled the premier position.
The success of the first Games at Hamilton in 1930 provided enough incentive to make them regular.When teams throughout the Empire were gathered together at the tenth Olympiad at Los Angeles in 1932, the formation of the British Empire Games Federation was further discussed and the Federation was subsequently constituted. In 1952 the Federation was retitled "British Empire and Commonwealth Games Federation". In Jamaica 1966 it became the "British Commonwealth Games Federation and in 1974 at Christchurch the title was again changed to the "Commonwealth Games Federation".
BRIEF HISTORY OF COMMON WEALTH GAME
1930 Commonwealth Games
16-23 August, Hamilton, Canada
The first Commonwealth Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Canada. “Bobby” MM Robinson, an influential figure in Canadian athletics finally put into action a sports plan that had been talked and discussed amongst Commonwealth nations for almost three decades.
Eleven countries with 400 athletes in total participated in the first Commonwealth Games. A sum of $30,000 was provided by the City of Hamilton to these nations to help cover travelling costs. Since then, the Games have been conducted every four years except for 1942 and 1946, due to World War II.
From 1930 to 1950 the Games were known as the British Empire Games, then the British Empire and Commonwealth Games until 1962. From 1966 to 1974 they took on the title of British Commonwealth Games and from 1978 onwards they have been known as simply the Commonwealth Games.
1934 British Empire Games
4-11 August, London, England
The Games, which were awarded to Johannesburg, South Africa finally came to London to prevent a political crisis concerning the way South Africa might greet and treat black and Asian Commonwealth athletes.
This was the Games, where India made their debut.
Sixteen nations sent a total of about 500 competitors to the London Games. In addition to the 11 nations who had competed at the 1930 Hamilton Games, the participants making their debuts at the London Games were Hong Kong, India, Jamaica, Rhodesia and Trinidad.
Six sports were featured in the Games – athletics, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, swimming and diving, and wrestling.
1938 British Empire Games
5-12 February, Sydney, Australia
The southern hemisphere hosted the Games for the first time. The famous Sydney Cricket Ground hosted the opening ceremony in front of 40,000 spectators who wanted Australia and New Zealand to out do England and a rivalry was born in Commonwealth Games.
Fifteen nations participated down under at the Sydney Games involving a total of 466 athletes and 43 officials. New participants included Fiji and Ceylon.
Seven sports were featured in the Sydney Games – track and field, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving, and wrestling.
1950 British Empire Games
4-11 February, Auckland, New Zealand
The fourth edition of the Games were held at the nation’s largest city, Auckland. New Zealand had never been the focus of so much sporting attention and the hosts responded in a most magnificent and hospitable manner.
The opening ceremony at Eden Park was attended by 40,000 spectators, whilst nearly 250,000 people attended the Auckland Games as event spectators – a phenomenal audience given the remoteness of New Zealand in 1950.
Twelve countries sent a total of 495 male and 95 female competitors to Auckland, whilst debutant nations included Malaysia and Nigeria.
Nine sports featured at the Auckland Games – track and field, boxing, cycling, fencing, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling.
1954 British Empire & Commonwealth Games
30 July – 7 August, Vancouver, Canada
The V Games were now renamed to include Commonwealth in the title for the first time. The ‘Miracle Mile’, as it became dubbed, saw both the gold medallist, Roger Bannister of England, and silver medallist, John Landy of Australia, run sub-four minute races in an event that was televised live across the globe for the first time.
Some 24 nations sent a total of 662 athletes and 127 officials to the Vancouver Games. Nations winning medals at the Games included England, Australia, South Africa, Canada, New Zealand, Scotland, Trinidad, Northern Ireland, North and South Rhodesia, Nigeria, Pakistan, Wales, Jamaica, Hong Kong, Uganda, Barbados and British Guiana.
A total of nine disciplines figured in the Games.
1958 British Empire & Commonwealth Games
18-26 July, Cardiff, Wales
The VI Games marked the biggest sporting event ever held in Wales to date. Cardiff had to wait 12 years longer than originally scheduled to become host of the Games, as the 1946 event was cancelled because of World War II.
England’s famed middle distance runners, Roger Bannister and Chris Chattaway, were handed the honour of taking the Queen’s Baton from Buckingham Palace on the first stage of its journey to Wales.
The Cardiff Games were to be South Africa’s last until their post-apartheid return to the Games in 1994. A number of objections against South Africa took place in Cardiff because their team had been selected on the basis of race and colour rather than ability. South Africa subsequently withdrew from the Commonwealth in 1961 for 30 years.
Thirty-five nations sent a total of 1,130 athletes and 228 officials to the Cardiff Games and 23 countries and dependencies won medals, including, for the first time, Singapore, Ghana, Kenya and the Isle of Man.
Nine sports were featured in the Cardiff Games – athletics, boxing, cycling, fencing, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling.
1962 British Empire & Commonwealth Games
21 November – 1 December, Perth, Australia
The VII Games are remembered for its “heat, dust and glory”. The day before the Perth Games opened the temperature was an expected 80 degrees Fahrenheit, but the heat was measured at 105 degrees at the opening ceremony in the new Perry Lakes Stadium the following day and such extremes persisted throughout the Games’ duration. In the previous 65 years, only 10 100 degree plus days had been recorded in Perth. Australian soldiers were pressed into action, ferrying water to competing athletes.
Thirty-five countries sent a total of 1,041 athletes and officials to Perth. Jersey was amongst the medal winners for the first time, whilst British Honduras, Dominica, Papua New Guinea and St Lucia all made their inaugural Games appearances.
Nine sports were featured at the Perth Games – athletics, boxing, cycling, fencing, lawn bowls, rowing, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling.
1966 British Commonwealth Games
4-13 August 1966, Kingston, Jamaica
With the British Empire formally ended, the Kingston Games became the VIII British Commonwealth Games. There was a worry amongst the larger nations that Jamaica’s infrastructure would not enable a successful Games delivery – but this proved to be largely unfounded. Controversially, also, the event programme was altered for the first time since 1950 with lawn bowls and rowing dropped and replaced with badminton and shooting instead.
Thirty-four nations competed in the Kingston Games sending a total of 1,316 athletes and officials
The nine sports featured in the Kingston Games were athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, fencing, shooting, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling.
1970 British Commonwealth Games
16-25 July, Edinburgh, Scotland
The IX Games at Edinburgh will be remembered for a number of firsts. It was the first time that metric distances and electronic photo-finish technology were employed at the Games and also the first time that HM Queen Elizabeth II attended in her capacity as Head of the Commonwealth. Scots will further remember the Games for the two Scottish brothers who won gold, one on the first day and one on the last.
Forty-two nations sent a total of nearly 1,750 athletes and officials to the first Edinburgh Games. New medal winning nations included Tanzania, Malawi and St Vincent.
Ten sports were featured in the Games – athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, fencing, lawn bowls, shooting, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling
1974 British Commonwealth Games
24 January – 2 February, Christchurch, New Zealand
Following the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics, the X Games at Christchurch was the first multi-sport event to place the safety of participants and spectators as its uppermost requirement. Security guards surrounded the athlete’s village and there was an exceptionally high-profile police presence. Even so, Christchurch enchanted the watching world as a city of beautiful churches and gardens.
On the running track, Jamaica’s Don Quarrie successfully defended both his 1970 100m and 200m gold medals. Quarrie was to go on to win the 100m in 1978 as well.
Only 22 countries succeeded in winning medals from the total haul of 374 medals on offer, but first time winners included Western Samoa, Lesotho, Swaziland, St Vincent and the Grenadines.
Nine sports were featured in the Christchurch Games – athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, shooting, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling.
1978 Commonwealth Games
3-12 August, Edmonton, Canada
The XI Games was the first to bear the current day name of the Commonwealth Games. Whilst Edmonton had won the right to host the Games with an audacious vision presented six years earlier to the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly, the organisers had to walk a careful tightrope in the immediate run up to the Edmonton Games to ensure that there was no repeat of the African nations boycott of the 1976 Montreal Olympics caused by a New Zealand rugby tour of South Africa.
Forty-six countries sent a total of 1,405 athletes and 504 officials to the Edmonton Games. As host nation, Canada also topped the medal table for the first time.
Ten sports were featured at the Edmonton Games – athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, lawn bowls, shooting, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling.
1982 Commonwealth Games
30 September – 9 October, Brisbane, Australia
The Brisbane Games are still hailed as one of the very best. Everything went so well from the moment Matilda, a 13-metre mechanical kangaroo, helped out with the opening ceremonies. Once again, a boycott was avoided and the sun shone throughout the duration of the XII Games.
Forty-six nations participated in the Brisbane Games with a new record total of 1,583 athletes and 571 officials. As hosts, Australia headed the medal table leading the way ahead of England, Canada, Scotland and New Zealand respectively.
The men’s 200m gold was shared by England’s Mike McFarlane and Scotland’s Allan Wells, with judges unable to separate the pair at the winning post.
Nine sports featured at the Brisbane Games – athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, shooting, swimming and diving, weightlifting and wrestling.
1986 Commonwealth Games
24 July – 2 August 1986, Edinburgh, Scotland
After nearly two decades successfully averting political stay-aways and protests because of apartheid and sanction-busting sports tours to South Africa, the XIII Games, the second to be staged at Edinburgh, was to become known as “the Boycott Games”. Sadly, despite there being so many fond memories of the Scottish hospitality offered in 1970, 32 Commonwealth nations decided that they could not attend, because of their opposition to apartheid in sports.
Twenty-six nations did attend the second Edinburgh Games and sent a total of 1,662 athletes and 461 officials.
Ten sports were featured at the second Edinburgh Games – athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, lawn bowls, rowing, shooting, weightlifting and wrestling.
1990 Commonwealth Games
24 January – 3 February, Auckland, New Zealand
The XIV Commonwealth Games, the third to be hosted by New Zealand and Auckland’s second, witnessed a fantastic opening ceremony comprising a magnificent and moving portrayal of the forces that led to the formation of New Zealand society and culture.
Thankfully, the perennially threatened boycott gave way to a new positive spirit of co-operation far more in keeping with the image of “The Friendly Games” and a new record of 54 nations participated in the second Auckland Games.
Twenty-nine of the competing nations succeeded in winning medals from a total of 639 medals available. Australia headed the medals table with New Zealand claiming fourth place behind England and Canada.
Ten sports featured in the second Auckland Games – athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, judo, lawn bowls, shooting and weightlifting.
1994 Commonwealth Games
18-28 August, Victoria, Canada
Canada hosted the Games for the fifth time, as the 15th edition came to Victoria in 1994. The end of apartheid in the early part of the decade also heralded the return of South Africa to the Commonwealth Games and ensured that the era of threatened boycotts was over. Both the opening and closing ceremonies were held at Victoria’s Centennial Stadium, which had undergone a superb refit in honour of the Games.
Sixty-three nations sent a total of nearly 2,450 athletes and 892 officials as the Commonwealth Games burgeoned at Victoria. Once again, Australia headed the medals table whilst the hosts, Canada, pushed England into third place. Nigeria marked its arrival as a Commonwealth sporting force by picking up more gold medals than both New Zealand and India.
Ten sports were featured at the Victoria Games – athletics, aquatics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, lawn bowls, shooting, weightlifting and wrestling.
1998 Commonwealth Games
11-21 September, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia
For the first time in its 68-year history, the Commonwealth Games were held in Asia. The XVI Games, held at Kuala Lumpur in the Malaysian state of Selangor were also the first Games to feature team sports – an overwhelming success that added large numbers to both participators and TV audience numbers.
A new record of 70 countries sent a total of 5,250 athletes and officials to the Kuala Lumpur Games. The top five countries in the medal standing were Australia, England, Canada, Malaysia and South Africa. Nauru also achieved an impressive haul of three gold medals.
Fifteen sports were featured in the Kuala Lumpur Games – aquatics, athletics, badminton, boxing, cricket, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, netball, lawn bowls, rugby 7s, shooting, tenpin bowling, weightlifting and wrestling.
2002 Commonwealth Games
25 July-Aug 4, Manchester, England
The Games returned to England for only the second time in their history. The previous English hosts were London in 1934, even though Great Britain – England, Scotland and Wales – have between them hosted six of the 17 Games.
Australia (82 gold), England (54 gold) and Canada (31 gold) occupied the top three spots while India for the first time made it to the top five with 30 gold, as New Zealand with 11 gold were fifth.
A total of 17 disciplines, the highest ever were held at Manchester and a total of 72 countries came for the games. The disciplines held were aquatics, athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, judo, lawn bowls, netball, rugby 7s, shooting, squash, table tennis, triathlon, weightlifting and wrestling.
2006 Commonwealth Games
15 March-26March, Melbourne, Australia
The XVIII Commonwealth Games, held at Melbourne in Australia. Australia (84 gold), England (36 gold) and Canada (26 gold) occupied the top three spots while India won 22 gold and occupied fourth position, as South Africa with 12 gold were fifth.
A total of 15 disciplines, and a total of 71 countries came for the games. The disciplines held were aquatics, athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, lawn bowls, netball, rugby 7s, shooting, squash, table tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.
