The
1998 XVI Commonwealth Games were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from September 11 to September 21 making it the first Asian country to act as host and the last Commonwealth Games for 20th Century. A record 70 nations (34 of which collected medals) supplied 3638 athletes.
Overview
The 16th Games was declared open by His Majesty the King of Malaysia, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman on September 11.
The main focus for the games and the venue for the opening and closing ceremonies was the newly built National Stadium Bukit Jalil, a 100,000 spectator capacity stadium.
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The logo for these games was inspired from the national flower of Malaysia, the
Hibiscus, and was the first time that the colour yellow was introduced in the logo. (All previous logos had been red, white and blue to reflect the colours of the British Union Jack).
The official mascot for the games was Wira, meaning warrior in the Malay language, the Orang utan.
The host nation was thrilled at achieving its best ever haul of ten gold medals.
The 16th Commonwealth Games' host newly introduced team sports of
cricket,
Field Hockey,
Netball and
Rugby Sevens.
These joined athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, lawn bowls, shooting, squash, swimming, ten-pin bowling and weightlifting to make a total of 15 different categories of events.
In front of 20,000 fans at the Petaling Jaya Stadium, Rugby Sevens in particularly were an enormous success with New Zealand collecting its 100th Commonwealth Games medal with a 21-12 win over the plucky
Fiji, (the reigning world champions). Man of the match was the giant Jonah Lomu who had worked tirelessly during the 10-minutes each way final.
Led by veteran star David Campese, Australia took the bronze beating
Samoa 33-12.
In the squash event many had anticipated a close match between Michelle Martin and Sarah Fitz-Gerald who had both comfortably won their respective semi finals. Sarah had won the previous two years world open and Michelle the three prior to that and so it was with some surprise too many that Michelle took the gold in three straight sets 9-0, 9-6, 9-5. Sarah did avenge this defeat in the final of the world championship later that year, in what many people regard as the greatest women's final ever, coming back from 8-2 down in the fifth to retain her title.
Michelle also teamed up with Craig Rowland to take the commonwealth mixed doubles gold.
Erika-Leigh Stirton took five of the six available golds in the rhythmic gymnastics only being beaten into second place in the team event in the hosts took gold.
September 21st saw Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth and Patron of the Commonwealth Games Federation declare the ceremony closed on a night that saw both international star Céline Dion and Rod Stewart entertain the crowd.
The overall nation that won the most medals of 1998 Commonwealth Games is Australia which followed by England and Canada. Malaysia is placed at the fourth place.
Medal Table
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Medal Table By Country See also
*Olympic Games
External link
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Australia at the 1998 Commonwealth Games - Australian Commonwealth Games Association
Category:Commonwealth Games medal counts
Commonwealth Games medal count
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Category:Kuala Lumpur
