Delhi Games end on Grand note

Australians take top spot in medals tally:

Chinthana WASALA reporting from New Delhi

The XIX edition of the Commonwealth Games came to grand finale yesterday at the Jawaharlal Nerhu stadium in the Indian capital New Delhi.

It was a ceremony to remember and may be the best of its kind when the Indian Capital hosted the scintillating closing ceremony in front of a full house of 60,000 spectators and dignitaries including the guest of honour Sri Lanka President Mahinda Rajapaksa, Commonwealth Games Federation President Michael Fennel, UPA Chairperson Sonia Gandhi, Earl of E’sssex Prince Edward, India Vice President M Hamid Ansari and India Prime Minister Dr. Manmohan Singh.

The one who closed the eyes for even a fraction of a second may have lost a lot to see.

India did it, they hosted the nineteenth edition of the Commonwealth Games without any major incident that would harm their image, and proved the critics were wrong.

President Rajapaksa waved proudly to the Lankan contingent when they matched their way with three medals, a gold, silver and a bronze in their possession.

The golden boy Manju Wanniarachchi, Silver medalist Chinthana Vidanage and the bronze medalist Sudesh Peris were the happiest among them.

The closing ceremony featured over 7000 Indian artistes, who mesmerized the whole world, performing in both traditional and modern streams engraving both culture and state of the art technology.

However the whole city of Delhi looked deserted as per security measures, the shops, offices and schools were closed yesterday. New Delhi was on high alert when the curtain came down to mark the successful completion of the games, with over 150,000 policemen and members of the security forces in duty.

There was a performance by 2010 schoolchildren, popular Bollywood songs performed by renowned artistes and a laser show coupled with spectacular fireworks as a part of the grand finale.

The laser equipment had been imported from Europe to create special effects like sea waves and graphics with beams to light up the sky.

The next hosts of the Games, Scotland caught the eyes of everyone with 400 of their artistes inviting all to visit Glasgow for the 2014 Games, just after the Commonwealth Games Flag was handed over to the Glasgov Lord Provost Robert Winter by the Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dixit. This was followed by music powered by 500,000 watts and lighting systems.

Delhi Games produced two new world records and 100 new Commonwealth Games Records, and saw the domination of the Australians who won a total of 177 medals with 74 gold, 55 silver and 48 bronze medals. Hosts India doubled their medals total to that of they won in the 2006 Melbourne Games and won a total of 101 medals 38 gold, 27 silver and 36 bronze medals.

Sri Lanka was placed in the 22nd position at the Delhi Games.

Trecia Kaye who won the women’s triple jump clearing 14.19m was awarded the David Dixon Award for the most outstanding athlete which was named after the former Secretary of the Commonwealth games for 17 years, David Dixon.