Commonwealth Games: Was it a hit or miss?
BEFORE the golden moments of the past two weeks, 10 years of meticulous planning went into the preparing for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. So how did we perform away from the sporting arena?
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BEFORE the golden moments of the past two weeks, 10 years of meticulous planning went into the preparing for the 2018 Commonwealth Games. So how did we perform away from the sporting arena?
SECURITY
GAMES officials had admitted that security and transport were the two big worries that kept them awake in the lead-up to the event.
Peter Beattie, the Games chairman, told The Courier-Mail last year that the Gold Coast was a bigger terrorist target than Rio during the 2016 Olympics.
But the massive security net thrown around the Gold Coast Games ensured they were incident-free.
Organisers would no doubt be relieved that the biggest security story of the Games was the 400 guards who downed tools and left because they weren’t happy with their accommodation or conditions.
A security force of 3700 police, 4300 security guards and almost 2000 troops took to the streets of the Glitter Strip in a high-visibility operation to keep the crowds safe.
Police were everywhere, providing a real sense of comfort for the masses. Some officers donned Borobi ears to engage with the punters.
Police, under the command of Deputy Commissioner Steve Gollschewski, also deserve praise for their diplomacy during indigenous protests. Airport-style scanning at Games venues was largely quick and efficient.
In keeping with the “Friendly Games’’, even the anti-terror bollards were welcoming.
The Gold Coast City Council shrouded bollards in high-profile areas like Broadbeach with colourful covers depicting beach and rainforest scenes.
TRANSPORT
ORGANISERS were left red-faced on the first day of the Games when thousands of spectators trying to get to the opening ceremony were left stranded at Broadbeach and Nerang with no buses to get to Carrara Stadium.
Transport Minister Mark Bailey was forced to publicly apologise and vowed to fix the debacle, which some insiders blamed on a controversial decision to award the Games transport contract to a country bus line from Victoria rather than proven Gold Coast operator
Surfside.
There was more transport embarrassment when an out-of-town bus driver took the Grenada women’s beach volleyball team to Chandler instead of Coolangatta after punching the wrong co-ordinates into his GPS.
There were also 90-minute waits for spectators getting out of Carrara Stadium on the first day of the athletics.
But what looked like it could be a rickety Games transport plan soon stabilised and began to run much more smoothly.
While the M1 was largely deserted, trains, trams and buses were packed as people embraced public transport to get to and from venues.
Mr Bailey said more than 5.4 million public transport trips were made during the Games, with the Coast’s light-rail system carrying four times as many passengers as its daily average.
THE CROWDS
WHEN it came to the crowds, the Games started with a whimper rather than a bang.
Glitter Strip streets and even the M1 were eerily deserted in the lead-up to, and first few days, of the Games.
Angry traders called it a “ghost town’’ and the worst Easter school holidays in years, with some threatening a class action against Games organisers.
Beattie admitted the scare campaign urging people to stay off the roads had backfired. He urged locals who had left town, amid fears of chaos, to return and support the Games, while Brisbane residents were encouraged to get on the M1 down to the Coast.
The crowds finally started to pick up on the first weekend of the Games and built steadily throughout the second week.
Crowds at the sports, especially the swimming and athletics, were huge.
Organisers said they were delighted with the more than 1.2 million tickets sold, about 80,000 snapped up since the opening ceremony.
THE SCANDALS
FROM British boxers punching on in notorious nightclub Sin City to African athletes going MIA, a senior Mauritian official charged with sexual assault and syringe discoveries in the Indian team rooms, the Gold Coast Commonwealth Games delivered its share of scandals.
India was plunged into controversy before the Games even began when cleaners found a bottle of syringes in the boxing team’s room in the athletes village.
Indian officials were strongly reprimanded but that didn’t stop the team again falling foul of the village’s strict “no needles’’ policy.
The Commonwealth Games Federation Court had to convene an emergency session last Thursday after more needles were found in an Indian team room.
Triple jumper Rakesh Babu and race walker Irfan Thodi were kicked out of the Games and sent home on the first plane after the latest needle discovery.
There was more drama in the Games village when a Mauritian delegate was charged with sexually assaulting a young female athlete during a photo shoot.
He was given a notice to appear in Southport Magistrates Court tomorrow, but left the country hours after being charged and is not expected to return.
Northern Ireland boxer Sean McComb was hit with a $756 fine for public nuisance and banned from the party precincts of Surfers Paradise and Broadbeach after allegedly throwing a haymaker at Sin City bouncers last week.
Former Scottish Commonwealth Games boxing bronze medallist Stephen Lavelle was charged with two counts of assault after allegedly punching a woman and hurling a glass at a man on the dance floor of Sin City last Thursday.
Then there were the 13 African athletes and officials, including eight Cameroonians, who disappeared during the Games – some without even competing.
The opening ceremony was also not without controversy, with leading promoter Michael Michael Chugg slamming it as a “f.....g disgrace’’ and Sydney Olympics “ringmaster’’ comparing it to a school musical. Musical director Katie Noonan was accused of hogging the spotlight and there was also criticism of the heavy indigenous content.
With 6600 athletes and officials and 1.2 million spectators on the Coast for the Games, some scandal was inevitable.
But it failed to overshadow what was largely, as Beattie described it, a “bloody fantastic’’ Games.
Originally published as Commonwealth Games: Was it a hit or miss?
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