"Weak fields undermine gold rush.”

[Dan_Winters]

I think that all commonwealth games supporters/ fans should read the very interesting article published in SMH titled: “Weak fields undermine gold rush.”

http://www.smh.com.au/commonwealth-games-2010/comm-games-news/weak-fields-undermine-gold-rush-20101016-16o95.html

The article basically states that the 74 gold medals won by Australia would have translated into just SEVEN gold medals if this had been an olympic games, where there was a true global field, and that “many of the gold medals were won against mediocre opposition.”

Australia winning most of the gold medals at Delhi 2010, is really is NO big achievement.

Some of the big sporting powers are simply not there eg. USA, China, Russia, Germany. Also, Great Britain is competing as 7 different nations, rather than under the united Great Britain team that they send to the olympic games. Also, the home nations (British teams) have sent weakend teams to the Delhi games eg. Chris Hoy, Victoria Pendelton, Christine Ohurugu , who all won olympic gold medals are not attending these Delhi 2010 games, not to mention several Jamaican stars like Usain Bolt and Asafa Powell are simply not there.

Winning 70-80 gold at a commonwealth games does NOT translate into international success at an Olympics or world championships. Remember – at the Melbourne 2006 Commonwealth games, Australia won 84 gold compared to England won 36 gold medal. Bid gap there.

However at the 2008 Beijing Olympics, Great Britain won 19 gold compared to Australia’s 14 gold medals.

The addition of USA, Russia, China and a unified Great Britain team makes a huge difference. For example – it is important to point out that at Delhi 2010, Australia have won 14 commonwealth gold medals in cycling. In contrast, at Beijing 2008, Great Britain won 8 olympic gold medals in cycling, Australia won zero gold medals at Beijing, just 1 silver…..

The Australian team performance at a CWG is NOT an indicator as to how the Australian team will perform on the global stage, nor does it indicate where Australian athletes rate/ rank on the international stage.