Commonwealth games 2014

Commonwealth Games 2014

The Commonwealth games kick start today with the Opening Ceremony in Glasgow

By 23rd Jul, 2014 | 05:05 pm

The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games are set to kick start with 6,500 athletes and officials from 71 countries (all former colonies of the British Empire) competing from 23 July to 3 August. This mega event of 11 days will showcase brilliance from physical strength and agility to aim and perfection to combat and fast reflexes in 17 different sports. This is the 20th edition of the Commonwealth Games since 1930.

Glasgow will not only be a stage for a wide array of sporting events, but it will also be followed by a plenty of cultural and arts events for everyone. Such a multi-sporting and multi-national event is one of the biggest events organised in Scotland. So, the Glasgow government has undertaken an initiative of promoting environment sustainability through this event in order to highlight the inter-dependency of humans with the environment. This is keeping up with the ongoing tradition: to spread a global message like anti-racism or water sustainability in any major multi-national sporting event.

Most events will take place on three compact site clusters located at the east, south and west of the city centre, but some events will take place outside the city: Carnoustie will host shooting, Edinburgh will host diving and Strathclyde Country Park will host triathlon. The Celtic Park, which has the largest capacity of 60,000, will host the Opening Ceremony.

Source-www.dailymailco.uk

All the cycling and badminton events will be held in the Emirates Arena right opposite the Celtic Park. Home to Scottish football, Hampden Park will host the track and field events, where you can see the fastest man on the Earth from Jamaica: Usain Bolt. The same venue will also play host to the Closing Ceremony.

If you didn’t know, the Games are one of the few events where the nations comprising the United Kingdom will compete against each other on a global stage. The event will not only have the big nations but will also have smaller territories like the Isle of Man and the Channel Islands participating.

India will be sending a contingent of 215 athletes competing in 14 out of 17 disciplines. India had the best record in our Commonwealth Games history last time- coming second to Australia with 101 medals- and would be looking to improve their tally this time around. We have really strong boxing, badminton, shooting and wrestling teams.

It won’t be a dream to imagine our country topping the medal tally chart with established heroes like Gagan Narang, Sushil Kumar and Vijender Singh bringing in fresh accolades.

-Sayan Ganguly