Competitors from 72 nations and territories – lots of that are former British colonies – can be vying for medals in 19 sports activities over a jam-packed 11 days in the Midlands.
The City of Birmingham in the UK will host the 2022 Commonwealth Games. Picture: Twitter/@birminghamcg22
BIRMINGHAM – More than 5,000 athletes are primed for motion in the English metropolis of Birmingham from Friday at a Commonwealth Games missing a number of monitor and subject stars however nonetheless boasting elite performers.
Competitors from 72 nations and territories – lots of that are former British colonies – can be vying for medals in 19 sports activities over a jam-packed 11 days in the Midlands.
Away from the marquee athletics and swimming occasions, ladies’s Twenty20 cricket makes its debut and 3×3 basketball will characteristic for the primary time whereas sedate garden bowls is a fixture.
There is an built-in para sports activities programme in some occasions.
The Games, held each 4 years, are sometimes criticised as a unusual sporting relic however can be launched in type at Thursday’s opening ceremony, headlined by Nineteen Eighties pop band Duran Duran, shaped in Birmingham.
Sporting powerhouse Australia have topped the medals desk at each Games since 1990 besides in 2014, when England completed prime in Glasgow — the final time the occasion was held on British soil.
England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland compete as separate groups throughout the Commonwealths moderately than as a mixed British outfit.
In the pool, Emma McKeon, Ariarne Titmus, Kaylee McKeown and teenage sensation Mollie O’Callaghan will lead the cost for a star-studded Australian crew.
Double Olympic champion Titmus, 21, opted out of the current world championships in Budapest to maintain herself contemporary for Birmingham.
“I am so excited and I think we’ve got a great team going in. It’s insane the depth we have,” stated the Commonwealth Games 400 metres and 800m freestyle champion.
McKeon, 28, who gained seven medals — together with 4 golds — eventually 12 months’s Olympics in Tokyo, boasts an exceptional Commonwealth Games document, with eight gold and 4 bronze medals in two appearances.
Headlining for England can be breaststroke celebrity Adam Peaty, who missed the current world championships with a foot damage.
“I feel really good in myself, I feel really good in my fitness,” he instructed Sky Sports. “But now it’s all about getting that cash out of the bank and seeing where I’m at.”
He stated he was relishing competing in entrance of residence followers.
“I was born in the Midlands, probably die in the Midlands, it’s my home.”
CALENDAR CLASH
The Commonwealth Games comes sizzling on the heels of the world athletics championships in Eugene, Oregon, which solely completed on Sunday.
The worlds had been rescheduled from final 12 months after the coronavirus pandemic pressured a delay to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics however that has created a headache for athletes in a crowded schedule.
Olympic champions Andre De Grasse, Kirani James and Neeraj Chopra will certainly be absent from Birmingham.
Chopra, who gained javelin gold for India in Tokyo final 12 months, stated he was “hurt” at not with the ability to defend his Commonwealth title after struggling a groin pressure throughout the world championships, the place he gained silver.
There are main doubts over the participation of Jamaican dash trio Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who swept the 100m podium in Oregon.
Jackson, who beforehand steered she could be competing in Birmingham, adopted up her 100m silver on the worlds by working the second-fastest time in historical past in the 200m.
In one other blow, British sprinter Dina Asher-Smith introduced on Wednesday she had withdrawn from the England crew resulting from a hamstring damage she sustained in Oregon “due to the short turnaround”.
But there’ll nonetheless be star energy on the Alexander Stadium, with Australian excessive jumper Eleanor Patterson and javelin thrower Kelsey-Lee Barber arriving as newly minted world champions.
Jake Wightman, who shocked Norway’s Jakob Ingebrigtsen to win 1,500m gold in the United States, can be one among massive attracts for residence followers in the absence of Asher-Smith, with Scottish Olympic silver medallist Laura Muir one other main title.
Cricket final featured on the Commonwealth Games in 1998 however the ladies will participate for the primary time in Birmingham, with Meg Lanning’s Australia sizzling favourites to win the T20 competitors.
Former Tour de France winner Geraint Thomas will compete for Wales and Australian biking dash ace Caleb Ewan will even characteristic after a disappointing Tour.
Mark Cavendish, driving for the Isle of Man moderately than underneath the British flag, may have one thing to show after lacking out on choice for the Tour de France this 12 months.