I congratulate each member of our athletics section of the Australian Commonwealth Games Team for their participation and performances at the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games. This has been the largest Australian athletics team ever sent to an international competition and many young athletes have been provided with the opportunity of their first international competition.
The spirit of the team has been outstanding and all within Australian athletics and the wider Australian community could not be more proud of the athletes who have won a total of 12 medals, including eight gold, one silver and three bronze. The achievement of these performances has been supported by many dedicated team personnel including coaches, medical staff and management.
The depth of performance was emphasised by the number of top eight results including eleven athletes in fourth place as well as 16 personal bests, with over half the team making the top eight in their event. This depth has resulted in Australia finishing second on the points table, which takes into account the number of top-eight placings, amongst all Commonwealth nations competing in athletics at Glasgow 2014 and finishing third on the medal table. This is a wonderful result for Australia.
It must be recognised that Glasgow 2014 has also presented a number of challenges for Athletics Australia in relation to the overall management and preparation of such a large team. A thorough review will occur post-Games to reflect on the lessons learnt from the Glasgow campaign. Amongst the matters to be reviewed include team preparation, selection, staffing and pre-Games competition. Further details on the review process will be provided in the coming weeks.
The Commonwealth Games, like the Olympic Games and Paralympic Games, present our sport with an outstanding opportunity to showcase outstanding Australian athletic talent, and for this reason Athletics Australia will ensure that world-best processes and procedures are employed to maximise team performance.
We thank the Australian Commonwealth Games Association and the Australian Sports Commission for their support of the athletics team at these Commonwealth Games and now look forward to providing the framework for outstanding performances at the 2015 IAAF World Championships and 2015 IPC Athletics World Championships and other international competitions during the coming year.
