‘best Ever’ Games Comes To A Close
The Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games came to an end on Sunday night with the Closing Ceremony marking the finale of the competition – deemed the ‘best ever’ by Commonwealth Games Federation President Prince Imran.
‘The Commonwealth Games are known as the Friendly Games,’ he said.
‘These have been more than that, they have truly been the peoples’ Games. Glasgow, it is a job well done, you have delivered the best Games ever.’
Entitled Back to Ours by director David Zolkwer, the ceremony ended the Glasgow 2014 campaign after 11 days of action across 17 sports, with hosts Scotland finishing fourth overall with a record haul of 19 golds and a best-ever tally of 53 medals.
England topped the medal table for the first time in 28 years, Wales surpassed their target of 27 and Northern Ireland reaped their largest tally since the Games was last in Scotland in 1986.
The Commonwealth Flag was also passed to Gold Coast to mark the transition to the next edition of the Games in 2018.
The jamboree ended with a Closing Ceremony opened by Glaswegian singer Lulu and closed by Scottish singer-songwriter Dougie MacLean.
In between were athletes emerging from tents, speeches, a presentation from the Gold Coast organisers and Kylie Minogue.
Finally, following a mass rendition of Auld Lang Syne, Scotland bid farewell to Glasgow 2014. The Games were then officially declared closed by the Earl of Wessex, Prince Edward, vice-patron of the CGF.
Mike Hooper, chief executive of the Commonwealth Games Federation concluded: ‘Yesterday, the rain came down, but the spirit of these Games endured.’
‘Each medallist who returns to their community will get a heroes welcome, and encourage others to have a go – to pursue their dreams.’
‘This is one of the most powerful elements of sport – the ability to inspire our youth – and we have seen fantastic role models in action across these 11 days in Glasgow.’
Online, a 41-shot rally during a table tennis match quickly became the Commonwealth Games YouTube Channel’s most watched video.
The video was taken during the second match of the men’s semi-final between Nigeria’s Segun Toriola and Singapore’s Ning Gao on 27th July and already has over 1 million hits.
Ahead of the Games, Glasgow 2014 CEO David Grevemberg was amongst the speakers at Beyond The Games, powered by Dell – a ground-breaking international summit for social change through sport.
