Common wealth Games 2018 opening ceremony highlights

The Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 are set to commence from today, with the opening ceremony taking place at the Carrara Stadium in Gold Coast today evening. A strong Indian contingent is in the Australian city and will be aiming to better the country’s previous showings at the Games.

This time, 218-strong Indian contingent is billed to be among the top nations in Gold Coast, with strong performances in the last four editions. Australia are staging the Games for a fifth time, with Gold Coast seeing off competition from Hambantota in Sri Lanka to be named as the host venue. A total of 71 Commonwealth nations and territories will be represented in Gold Coast, with beach volleyball and women’s rugby sevens making their debuts. At the previous edition of Commonwealth Games in Glasgow the Indian medal tally stood at 64–15 gold, 30 silver and 19 bronze. Follow live update of Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018 opening ceremony here.

* Hello and welcome to our live coverage of Gold Coast Commonwealth Games 2018. The opening ceremony starts in about an hour. PV Sindhu will lead out the Indian contingent today.
*Britain’s Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, the Duchess of Cornwall, are in Australia in Commonwealth Games. They have, however, faced a demonstration organised by a coalition of indigenous rights groups under the banner of “Stolenwealth Games”. Protesters are expected to demonstrate outside Carrara Stadium during the opening ceremony.
*PV Sindhu will be one of the main gold medal hopes for India in the Commonwealth Games. But does that put the young shuttler under pressure? Check out her thoughts here.
*The theme for the ceremony is “hello earth”. A beautiful light show followed by some dazzling blue fireworks get the ceremony started.
*Nigeria are next. They have always done well in Commonwealth Games. Rwanda follow them
*Seychelles, South Africa, Swaziland are next. They are all hale and hearty. From tomorrow, however, things will get serious.
*The Gambia, the smallest team inat this CWG arrives. They have just six athletes in all.
*Athletes from Canada, Falkland Islands, Guyana, St. Helena are next. They are from the North American and Central American region.
*The Asian countries are here. Bangladesh are the first from the region
*AND INDIA IS HERE! PV SINDHU IS THE FLAG-BEARER. India have a 215-plus contingent. They won 64 medals in Glasgow and would hope to better that tally in this edition
*Pakistan, Singapore Sri Lanka are next.
*The Caribbean nations are here. Antigua and Barbuda, Dominica, Barbados’ athletes grace the opening ceremony.
*St Vincent and the Grnadines, Trinidad and Tobago, Turks and Caicos Islands - Their colourful uniform impresses all.
*The Oceania region is here - Cook Islands, Fiji, and Kiribati are here