Home >  Games & Sports>>             Commonwealth Games  2010 Delhi                                        

  Commonwealth Games  2010   
  The 19th Commonwealth Games was jointly declared open by Prince Charles and President of India Pratibha Patil on October 3, 2010..In a  spectacular opening ceremony, after the Queen's baton was handed over by Beijing Olympic bronze medallist wrestler Sushil Kumar to Charles, the Prince of Wales read out the Queen's message but it was President Patil who had the last word, saying, "Let the Games begin". 
  President Patil then delivered her speech in which she said now that the Games are open, let them begin.
.
  
   About 1,200 moving lights, 25 stacks of speakers and about 2,700 shots of fireworks spread across the roof of the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium combined with a stage weighing 500 tonnes to create a spectacular opening ceremony of the Commonwealth Games on October 3, 2010. The entire stage is filled with an orange glow thanks to the projector. There is huge balloon like figure with colourful reflectors, suspended some 25 feet above the ground. Must say this is really impressive. 
   Athletes from the 71 nations of the Commonwealth marched in with pride at the stadium.   Olympic Gold medallist Abhinav Bindra led the 619-member Indian contingent as the flag-bearer during the opening ceremony. President Pratibha Patil, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh along with Gursharan Kaur joined everyone in the stadium in giving a standing ovation to the Indian contingent in the march past. Nearly  6,700 players of 71 countries are participating in the Commonwealth Games this time. Congress President Sonia Gandhi, Senior Bharatiya Janata Party leader Lal Krishna Advani, Home Minister P.Chidambaram, External Affairs Minister S.M.Krishna and former President A.P.J.Abdul Kalam were among several other most distinguished who's who of the country present on this occasion.  Prince of Wales, Prince Charles attended the ceremony with his wife Camilla Parker Bowles.
 Closing Ceremony
 On October 14, 2010  thousands packed the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium  for the closing ceremony, the Indian medal tally read an impressive 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze for a total of 101. Though pushed to the third slot in the overall medal table England was not far behind India in gold count at 37. Its total was way ahead of India at 142 as it had won 59 silver and 46 bronze. Australia continued their domination of the Commonwealth Games with 74 gold, 55 silver and 48 bronze for a total of 177 medals.
  Indian athletes performance
  For the first time India  won the highest number of gold at 38, took the second spot in the medal table in any Commonwealth Games. Also  for the first time in Games history shunting sporting power England to third place and women sportspersons stole the thunder with top honour in several events.
  The Games will long be remembered for the splendid showing by women shooters, wrestlers, paddlers, archers, weightlifters and badminton players. Krishna Poonia sent India ecstatic with her gold winning discus throw. Harwant Kaur and Seema Antil followed her with a silver and bronze for a stunning 1-2-3 finish for the first time by Indian women in the Games.
   A.C. Ashwini, Manjeet Kaur, Mandeep Kaur, Sini Jose ran race of their life to lift the gold in the 4x400 metre women's relay. More historic firsts by Indian women came in badminton - Saina Nehwal getting the gold in singles and Jwala Gutta and Ashwini Ponnappa in doubles. Shooters Anisa Sayyed, Rahi Sarnobat, Heena Sidhu and Annu Raj are the new stars from the 19th Commonwealth Games in 1978.
  Women wrestlers who etched their names in the Games records are Alka Tomar and Anita and Geeta Devi. In archery it was the trio of Dola Banerjee, Dipika Kumri, Bombayala Devi and Renu Bala Chanu in weightlifing. 
  The Indian men winning gold included the familiar marksmen Gagan Narang and Abhinav Bindra , Somdev Devvarman in tennis singles, Manoj Kumar, Paramajeet Samota and Suranjoy Mayengbam Singh in boxing. 

  


   Latest Results
  Commonwealth games website
 

  Over all CWG Medal Tally on October 14
1. Australia:74, Gold, 55 Silver, 48  Bronze 
2. India:       38 Gold, 27 Silver, 36 Bronze: 
3. England   37 Gold, 59  Silver, 48 Bronze
4. Canada:   26 Gold, 17 Silver, 32 Bronze 
5. South Africa:12 Gold, 11Silver,10 Bronze:  
6. Nigeria:    11 Gold, 10 Silver, 14 Bronze:  
7.Malesia:12 Gold, 10 Silver, 13 Bronze:
8 Kenya:  12 Gold, 11 Silver, 9 Bronze: 
9. Singapore:11 Gold, 118 Silver, 9 Bronze: 
9. Scotland: 9 Gold,10 Silver, 7 Bronze:  
10 Samoa  3 Gold, 0 Silver, 1 Bronze:  
11 New Zealand  6 Gold,  22 Silver, 6 Bronze
12.N.Ireland: 3 Gold, 3  Silver, 4 Bronze
13. Pakistan: 2 Gold:, 1 Silver, 2 Bronze 
14 Cyprus     4 Gold,  3 Silver, 5 Bronze 
15.Welse:     2 Gold, 7 Silver,10 Bronze:
 16 Uganda:  2 Gold, 0 Silver, 0 Bronze
17 Jamaica:   2 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze
18 Bahamas   1 Gold, 1 Silver, 3 Bronze
19 Jamaica:   2 Gold, 4 Silver, 1 Bronze
20 Shri Lanka:   1 Gold, 1 Silver, 1 Bronze  


 
  Dipika Kumri won Gold in archery

  Security Arrangement
  The unprecedented security arrangement put in place for the Commonwealth Games ceremoney included 100,000 security personnel including 3,000 commandos, and 15 bomb disposal squads. In addition to that 3,000 close circuit television cameras (CCTVs) have been installed to monitor every activity during the ceremony.
  Supreme Court slams rampant corruption in CWG works.
  The Supreme Court on September 29, 2010  expressed serious concern over rampant corruption in the preparation for the Commonwealth Games, and said it could not shut its eyes when the expenditure involved was to the tune of Rs. 70,000 crore. 
  Justice G.S. Singhvi, heading a Bench, observed: “In this country payments are made without work being done.” Referring to the foot over-bridge near the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium that collapsed recently, the Judge said: “When the new bridge collapsed, it collapsed like a pack of cards. There is rampant corruption. We can't shut our eyes to this when Rs.70,000 crore is involved.”
  In a lighter vein, he said that “till October 15, ‘common wealth' is a public purpose, and thereafter it will be private purpose.”  The Bench, which included Justice A.K. Ganguly, was hearing an appeal filed by the Archaeological Survey of India against a Delhi High Court order relating to regularisation of a building constructed near the protected monument Jantar Mantar on Parliament Street here and close to the multi-storey building constructed by the New Delhi Municipal Council (NDMC).
  When counsel for the respondent pointed out that even the NDMC building was within 100 metres of Jantar Mantar and it had been constructed in violation of law, Additional Solicitor-General Harin Raval, appearing for the NDMC, tried to convince the court saying that the construction was made prior to the notification banning such constructions. He said the NDMC could produce receipts and payments made to workers. It was at this juncture that Justice Singhvi made these observations on rampant corruption in Games.
   Michael Fennel now says
  Commonwealth Games Federation chief, Michael Fennel, who earlier claimed that athletes' village was "filthy," described the village on October 6, 2010 as the best, he has ever seen. 
"The atmosphere in Games Village is extremely positive. Representatives are relishing the facilities there, especially the training and practice facilities," informed Fennell. 

  Corruption related to Commonwealth Games 2010
  With the Commonwealth Games over and demands for probe for mounting, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on October 15, 2010 appointed a high-level committee headed by a former CAG to go into allegations of corruption related to the mega sporting event. The committee, headed by former Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) V K Shunglu, will submit its report to the Prime Minister within three months, PMO spokesman said.
  The announcement came even as the CAG stepped into the picture to conduct assessment of various projects related to the CWG with officials set to visit all the stadia and go through records. The developments came as opposition parties, which had held their fire during the 12-day event, today stepped up their demand for thorough probe into corruption charges which the Congress said should be done and those guilty, if any, be brought to book.

  Defends Commonwealth Games
  Recently broadcaster Gary McCormick called for New Zealand to abandon the Commonwealth Games in India because of the appalling treatment of Indian families living in slums close to competition venues.
 Should we have events like the Commonwealth games while there are people starving and homeless in commonwealth countries? Definitely Some of the  greatest art and music and culture was produced in Europe during some of the most corrupt times where people were regularly starving and homeless. If we were to postpone any type of athletic events until everyone was housed and fed we would never hold any. And it is events such as these that give people something to aspire to and instill some national pride in their countries, surely a good thing .said South Islander