Across the seven shooters on Australia’s extended list, the only constant in Super Netball has been inconsistencyWith just over two months remaining until the first whistle blows at the Birmingham Commonwealth Games, the time for selectors to name the final team is inching closer. Decisions in the defence end are clear cut with only five players named in the wider squad to be reduced to four before the Games begin. The issue in the mid-court is an over-supply of talent, with the Swifts’ Maddy Proud and the Magpies’ Kelsey Browne demanding selectors take notice despite sitting outside of the named squad.But it is at the shooting end where cracks are beginning to appear. Across the seven shooters in the 18-player...
Next year’s Games in Birmingham will likely be the last on such a grand scale and some changes to safeguard the event’s future smack of genuine desperationIt’s nine months until the start of the XXII Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, which also means it’s four years and nine months till the start of the XXIII Commonwealth Games in, well, nobody knows. The Commonwealth Games Federation was due to announce the host city for 2026 in September 2019, but the decision was postponed until 2020, and then again to 2021, and has just been pushed back again until 2022. The CGF says it expects to make an announcement in March. At the moment there’s not a single confirmed bid.The CGF president, Dame...
Having stormed it with the Windrush scandal and dementia tax, Theresa May’s former chief of staff is now in place to look after the 2022 Commonwealth Games in BirminghamApart from the rude ones, there is only one word for the fact Theresa May’s former chief of staff Nick Timothy has been made a board member of the organising committee of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham. Inevitable. This is simply how stuff works. I’m only sorry our denuded empire means Nick can’t be given an Indian province or something. Or at least a go on Malaya.The ways Timothy’s latest appointment were inevitable are many and various, and we’ll come to them shortly. But we must begin with a recap of...
Reaction to the 250 or so Commonwealth Games athletes and officials seeking to stay underlines a basic rule of thumb: never believe what a country says about itself during a mega-eventAfter the 1956 Olympic Games in Melbourne 61 athletes and officials defected. Heroes, every one of them, in an era when switching from east to west – or vice versa – made the humans themselves prized trophies, coveted propaganda wins in the endless Cold War dick-measuring contest. Following last month’s Commonwealth Games on Australia’s Gold Coast it has been revealed that around 200 athletes and officials have outstayed their visas and are now seeking asylum. (Another 50 remain in the country illegally.) It is not called defecting today, you’ll note,...
An 11-year-old table tennis star, India v Pakistan in the hockey and the Serena of squash are some of the potential highlightsCaster Semenya is a multiple world and Olympic champion, the South African flag bearer and one of the Games’s biggest stars. She also competes under a cloud, with the IAAF threatening to reinstate a ban relating to testosterone levels that the Court of Arbitration for Sport labelled ‘unscientific’ back in 2015. Indian sprinter Dutee Chand won her battle to compete but has failed to qualify, leaving Semenya to deal with an unwelcome distraction alone. Related: Investigation launched into alleged indecent assault at Commonwealth Games Related: Adam Peaty determined to increase his performance and bank balance Continue reading...