Gold Coast Ready and Raring to Host 2018 Commonwealth Games

(ATR) With one year to go until the Gold Coast 2018 Commonwealth Games, the iconic Australian city is preparing to hold the country's biggest sporting event since the Sydney 2000 Olympics.

Athletes from each of the 23 sport disciplines were on hand to celebrate the countdown to the event, which will take place from April 4-15 next year, seeing 6600 athletes from 70 countries compete.

"The Games are in great shape," GC2018 Chairman Peter Beattie said. "It is on budget and on time and we have dealt with all of the major issues – security, engagement, tickets, transport infrastructure – everything that needs to be done, we are systematically doing."

Budget is a key talking point in Commonwealth Games circles of late, with 2022 hosts Durban withdrawing from their hosting responsibilities last month as they were unable to deliver the Games they promised.

"When you are dealing with a budget that is eight years old – from the bid book – you really have to do things smartly," Beattie said.

"Some things are more expensive now, and so you just have to find ways to do things smarter to stick within the budget, and we are doing that."

The Games will take place at a mixture of new and existing venues across the Gold Coast. A ferocious bout of extreme weather hit the region last week as a result of tropical cyclone Debbie - devastating much of Australia’s north-east coast. With much of the Gold Coast and surrounding areas flooded, Beattie was happy and relieved to note that there was not one single leak at a venue, all holding up to the challenge of an extraordinary weather event.

In time for today’s milestone, the city had not only dried out but turned on its trademark sunshine, as the competition schedule and ticketing strategy were announced at the Gold Coast’s famous Surfers Paradise beach.

"We are proud to present the GC2018 competition events schedule after many months of planning and coordination with all relevant stakeholders," Beattie said.

"We have factored in many different considerations into the design of the competition event schedule and believe the outcome is one that everyone from athletes to broadcasters and international sporting federations will be happy with."

The Games will show off the city's most famous asset - its beaches - with the marathon and road cycling making the most of the city’s picturesque backdrops, as well as triathlon and the newly added sport of beach volleyball taking place on the beach itself.

"It's always an amazing atmosphere when we play in national competitions on the beach here at the Gold Coast – so we are pumped that beach volleyball has been added to the program for the first time," Australian Olympian Taliqua Clancy said.

"Our sport is unique in that it showcases the location as well as the athletes," Clancy's partner Louise Bawden added.

"We get to play on a beautiful, natural beach, and the beauty of the Gold Coast will be broadcast around the world, it’s exciting."

As well as beach volleyball, the addition of women's rugby sevens is a highly anticipated change to the Games program.

"We have watched with envy as the men's teams went to the last couple of Games," Australia's Charlotte Casilick said.

"The top five rugby sevens teams in the world are from the Commonwealth, so we expect the competition to be really tough," Casilick said, with Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, England and Canada all vying for gold.

Australia won the inaugural women's rugby sevens Olympic gold in Rio, and hope to continue their winning run when they play on the Gold Coast next April.

"Everyone is getting fitter, faster and stronger," fellow Olympic medalist Ellia Green said. "I love that as we are 'the hunted', I love that teams are after us."

The men's rugby sevens gold medal match will close out the event competition, in a schedule that will see a total of 278 events contested across 11 days.

One year to go celebrations were rounded out with a festival of sport, music and art on the Surfers Paradise beachfront. With interactive sport displays and live music, the acceptance and excitement of the Commonwealth Games coming to the Gold Coast was really able to be felt among the locals.

Written by Alice Wheeleron the Gold Coast.

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