|
| |
1998 Kuala Lumpur logojpg
|
| |
150
|
| |
Kuala Lumpur , Malaysia
|
| |
|
| |
70 Nations of the Commonwealth
|
| |
3638
|
| |
Athletics, Swimming, Cycling, Triathlon, Marathon, Lawn Bowls, Hockey, Shooting, Netball, Ten Pin Bowling, Basketball, Mountain Biking, Badminton, Cricket and other lesser known sports
|
| |
September 11 , 1998
|
| |
September 21 , 1998
|
| |
His Majesty the King Of Malaysia
|
| |
TBA
|
| |
National Stadium Bukit Jalil
|
The were held in
Kuala Lumpur ,
Malaysia from
September 11 to
September 21 making it the first
Asian Country to act as
Host and the last Commonwealth Games for 20th Century. A record 70 nations (34 of which collected medals) supplied 3638 athletes.
The 16th Games was declared open by His Majesty the
King Of Malaysia ,
Yang Di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Jaafar Ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman on
September 11 .
The main focus for the games and the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies was the newly built
National Stadium Bukit Jalil , a 100,000
Spectator Capacity Stadium .
The logo for these games was inspired from the
National Flower of
Malaysia , the
Hibiscus , and was the first time that the colour yellow was introduced in the logo. (All previous logos had been
Red ,
White and
Blue to reflect the colours of the British Union Jack).
The official mascot for the games was Wira, meaning warrior in the Malay language, the
Orang Utan .
The host
Nation was thrilled at achieving its best ever haul of ten
Gold Medal s.
The 16th Commonwealth Games' host newly introduced
Team Sport s of , '''
Field Hockey ''', '''
Netball ''' and '''
Rugby Sevens '''.
These joined
Athletics ,
Badminton ,
Boxing ,
Cycling ,
Gymnastics ,
Lawn Bowls ,
Shooting ,
Squash ,
Swimming ,
Ten-pin Bowling and
Weightlifting to make a total of 15 different categories of events.
In front of 20,000 fans at the
Petaling Jaya Stadium , Rugby Sevens in particularly were an enormous success with New Zealand collecting its 100th
Commonwealth Games medal with a 21-12 win over the plucky
Fiji , (the reigning world champions). Man of the match was the giant
Jonah Lomu who had worked tirelessly during the 10-minutes each way final.
Led by veteran star
David Campese ,
Australia took the bronze beating
Samoa 33-12.
In the squash event many had anticipated a close match between
Michelle Martin and
Sarah Fitz-Gerald who had both comfortably won their respective semi finals. Sarah had won the previous two years world open and Michelle the three prior to that and so it was with some surprise too many that Michelle took the gold in three straight sets 9-0, 9-6, 9-5. Sarah did avenge this defeat in the final of the world championship later that year, in what many people regard as the greatest women's final ever, coming back from 8-2 down in the fifth to retain her title.
Michelle also teamed up with Craig Rowland to take the commonwealth mixed doubles gold.
Erika-Leigh Stirton took five of the six available golds in the
Rhythmic Gymnastics only being beaten into second place in the team event in the hosts took gold.
September 21st saw Her Majesty
Queen Elizabeth II , Head of the Commonwealth and
Patron of the Commonwealth Games Federation declare the ceremony closed on a night that saw both international star
Céline Dion and
Rod Stewart entertain the crowd.
The overall nation that won the most medals of 1998 Commonwealth Games is Australia which followed by England and Canada. Malaysia is placed at the fourth place.
See Also: Cricket at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
