Most Islanders were sleeping, in the wee overnight hours Wednesday morning, as some of sa国际传媒鈥檚 best athletes marched into Carrara Stadium at Gold Coast, Australia, in the opening ceremony of the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Among the 283 Canadian athletes at the Games, 52 are from the Island or live and train full time in Greater Victoria.
In advance stories on the Games, both the Guardian and New York Times touched on their perceived receding 鈥渞elevance鈥� and that of the Commonwealth in general.
Yet, it is proving stubbornly enduring in pop culture, from the runaway success of The Crown on Netflix to the world-wide tsunami of interest in Prince Harry鈥檚 and Meghan Markle鈥檚 May 19 wedding. Even politically, it is thought post-Brexit Britain will naturally draw closer to its Commonwealth brethren. It seems the Old Firm still has legs.
Into this cauldron is thrown the XXI Commonwealth Games on Australia鈥檚 shimmering East Coast of surf and sand, amid the glass condo highrises of Gold Coast, which line the beaches like gleaming sentinels.
The Commonwealth Games, like the Pan American Games and Asian Games, are historically or geographically limited by design. That is their whole point. If they weren鈥檛 purposefully limited, they would be another Summer Olympics.
Astute marketing has positioned them as preparatory events leading up to the next Summer Olympics. The term 鈥渄ress rehearsal for Tokyo 2020鈥� was heard often recently among Island athletes departing for Gold Coast.
Of the Canadian athletes who competed in the 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games, 53 per cent went on to compete in the 2016 Rio Olympics.
But not being events that involve the entire world, the Commonwealth, Pan Am and Asian Games can be hit-and-miss in terms of the depth of the various sports.
For instance, the Langford-based Canadian men鈥檚 and women鈥檚 sevens teams will face the best rugby nations in the world and medals will be very hard to win.
Field hockey is a sport in which Commonwealth nations have historical connections and great strength.
Canadian women鈥檚 team players Maddie Secco and Kathleen Leahy of Victoria and UVic Vikes grads Danielle Hennig and goaltender Kaitlyn Williams, along with Canadian men鈥檚 team players James Kirpatrick of Victoria and Olympians and UVic Vikes products Keegan Pereira and Matthew Sarmento, will be in tough in Gold Coast.
The Victoria-based Canadian triathlon team will also be up against a top-flight field. Desirae Ridenour of Cowichan Bay will battle women鈥檚 world No. 2 Ashleigh Gentle, a Gold Coast Aussie who will be racing on home soil. Matthew Sharpe of Victoria will be up against the fabulous Brownlee brothers of England, who have dominated this era of world men鈥檚 triathlon.
Lawn bowler Leanne Chinery of Victoria also will be in a killer field in a sport played almost exclusively within the Commonwealth.
Swimming is one of those Commonwealth Games sports that can range from powerhouse Australia, to high-middle powers sa国际传媒, England and South Africa, to also-ran nations filling lanes. Aussies are swim fanatics and this will be one of the most popular venues at the Gold Coast Games, with the 10,000-seat outdoor pool completely sold out.
Leading the Island swim contingent is Olympic medallist Hilary Caldwell, veteran Jeremy Bagshaw and the young trio of Sarah Darcel, Faith Knelson and Jade Hannah, Games debutante clubmates from the national training centre at Saanich Commonwealth Place.
Also at the pool, veteran Celina Toth will be a medal threat, while fellow Victoria Boardworks diver Bryden Hattie makes his Games debut.
Commonwealth Games track and field features the legendary distance running of the Kenyans and the explosive sprinting power of the Jamaicans. Islanders competing will be Olympic veteran and 2014 Glasgow Commonwealth Games bronze medallist Mike Mason of Nanoose Bay in the high jump, Olympian and defending women鈥檚 2010 Delhi and 2014 Glasgow Games champion Sultana Frizell and Games rookie Adam Keenan of Victoria, both in the hammer throw, and Natasha Wodak of the Prairie Inn Harriers in middle-distance.
Cycling features decent depth in the Commonwealth Games. Two rising performers, Jay Lamoureux of Victoria and Bear Mountain-based Haley Smith, will be looking for the podium in the velodrome and on the mountain-bike trails, respectively.
Among the several other Island athletes competing, versatile forward-guard and two-time sa国际传媒 West MVP Conor Morgan of Victoria leads the Canadian team of mostly U Sports players in what is a mid-level Games men鈥檚 basketball tournament featuring the talented host Aussie team, potent New Zealand Tall Blacks and African power Nigeria.
The Games run April 4 through April 15.
Three-time Olympic-medallist diver Meaghan Benfeito of Montreal carried the Canadian flag in the opening ceremony.
鈥淲e have an impressive team here at Gold Coast, made up of Commonwealth, Olympic and Paralympic medallists, as well as NextGen athletes who will likely compete in Tokyo 2020 and Birmingham 2022 [next Summer Olympics and Commonwealth Games, respectively],鈥� said former synchronized swimming Olympian Claire Carver-Dias, chef de mission of the Canadian team in Gold Coast.
The percentage breakdown of the Canadian team is 52 percent female and 48 percent male. Para-sports are fully integrated into the Commonwealth Games with the results counting in the medals table.
sa国际传媒 is traditionally third in the Commonwealth Games behind Australia and England, as it was last time out in 2014 at Glasgow with 82 medals behind England鈥檚 174 and Australia鈥檚 137.
Because of added sports, such as women鈥檚 rugby sevens and beach volleyball, sa国际传媒 has set a of target 100-plus medals for Gold Coast. sa国际传媒鈥檚 best showing was the 134 medals won, behind only leading Australia鈥檚 186, at Victoria in 1994. That is the last time sa国际传媒 has hosted the Games.
sa国际传媒 is third on the Commonwealth Games all-time medals table with 1,473 behind Australia鈥檚 2,218 and England鈥檚 2,008. New Zealand (610) and India (438) round out the top-five.
