The 1998 XVI Commonwealth Games were held in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia from 11 September to 21 September 1998 making it the first Asian country to act as host and the last Commonwealth Games for the 20th century. A record 70 nations (34 of which collected medals) supplied 3638 athletes. The other bid came from Adelaide in Australia.^[1]

Overview[link]

The 16th Games was declared open by the late His Majesty the King of Malaysia, Yang di-Pertuan Agong Tuanku Jaafar ibni Almarhum Tuanku Abdul Rahman on 11 September. 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.

The logo for these games was inspired by 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 Flag). The official mascot for the games was Wira (Malay for "warrior" or "hero") 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 and individuals sports of ten-pin bowling and squash.
These joined athletics, badminton, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, lawn bowls, shooting, swimming 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 to 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.

21 September saw Her Majesty Elizabeth II, Head of the Commonwealth and Patron of the Commonwealth Games Federation declare the ceremony closed with remarks as the best Commonwealth Games ever held in the 20th Century. International stars Céline Dion and Rod Stewart entertained the crowd on that night.

The nation that won the most medals during the 1998 Commonwealth Games was Australia. England and Canada came second and third respectively, while Malaysia came in fourth place.

Main venues[link]

[edit] National Sports Complex, Bukit Jalil

• National Stadium, Bukit Jalil -- Opening/Closing Ceremony, Athletics
• Putra Stadium, (Indoor) Bukit Jalil -- Gymnastics
• National Aquatic Centre—Swimming
• National Hockey Stadium -- Hockey
• National Squash Centre—Squash

[edit] Bukit Kiara Sports Complex

• Juara Stadium -- Netball
• National Lawn Bowls Centre -- Lawn Bowls

Other venues[link]

• Cheras Veledrome, Kuala Lumpur -- Track cycling
• Kuala Lumpur Badminton Stadium -- Badminton
• Mines Convention Centre -- Weightlifting
• Shah Alam -- Cycling road racing
• Melawati Stadium, Shah Alam -- Boxing
• Pyramid Bowl, Sunway Pyramid, Subang Jaya -- Tenpin bowling
• Petaling Jaya Stadium, Petaling Jaya -- Rugby
• Langkawi International Shooting Range (Lisram) -- Shooting

Corporate sponsors[link]

• Telekom Malaysia
• Bank Bumiputra
• Malaysia Airlines
• Siemens
• Proton
• Maybank
• Panasonic
• Toyota
• Pepsi
• Nestle's Milo
• Pro-Sport
• MasterCard
• Percetakan Nasional Malaysia Berhad (PNMB) (National Printing Malaysia Berhad)
• Astro
• Spritzer
• New Straits Times Press

Broadcast rights[link]

      Host nation

1998 Commonwealth Games Broadcasters in Southeast Asia
Code	Country	Network Station	Television Station	Radio Station
MAS	Malaysia	Radio Televisyen Malaysia	RTM TV1	Klasik Nasional FM
SIN	Singapore	Singapore International Media	Television Corporation of Singapore	Radio Corporation of Singapore
BRU	Brunei	Radio Televisyen Brunei	RTB TV1	Radio Nasional Brunei
MYA	Myanmar	Myanmar Radio and Television	Myanmar Television	Myanmar Radio

Medal table[link]

Participating countries

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Australia	82	61	57	200
2	England	36	47	52	135
3	Canada	30	31	40	101
4	Malaysia	10	14	12	36
5	South Africa	9	11	14	34
6	New Zealand	8	6	20	34
7	India	7	10	8	25
8	Kenya	7	5	4	16
9	Jamaica	4	2	0	6
10	Wales	3	4	8	15
11	Scotland	3	2	7	12
12	Nauru	3	0	0	3
13	Northern Ireland	2	1	1	4
14	Zimbabwe	2	0	3	5
15	Ghana	1	1	3	5
16	Mauritius	1	1	2	4
17	Cyprus	1	1	1	3
	Tanzania	1	1	1	3
	Trinidad and Tobago	1	1	1	3
20	Bahamas	1	1	0	2
	Mozambique	1	1	0	2
22	Barbados	1	0	2	3
23	Lesotho	1	0	0	1
24	Cameroon	0	3	3	6
25	Namibia	0	2	1	3
26	22x20px Seychelles	0	2	0	2
27	Sri Lanka	0	1	1	2
28	Bermuda	0	1	0	1
	Fiji	0	1	0	1
	Isle of Man	0	1	0	1
	Pakistan	0	1	0	1
32	Papua New Guinea	0	0	1	1
	Uganda	0	0	1	1
	Zambia	0	0	1	1
Total		215	215	245	675

Medals by event[link]

Aquatics[link]

Athletics[link]

See also 1998 in athletics (track and field)

Badminton[link]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's team	Malaysia	India	England  New Zealand
Women's team	England	Malaysia	Australia  India
Men's singles	Wong Choong Hann, Malaysia	Yong Hock Kin, Malaysia	Pullela Gopichand, India Darren Hall, England
Women's singles	Kelly Morgan, Wales	Aparna Popat, India	Tracey Hallam, England Julia Mann, England
Men's doubles	Choong Tan Fook and Lee Wan Wah, Malaysia	Cheah Soon Kit and Yap Kim Hock, Malaysia	Simon Archer & Chris Hunt, England Julian Robertson & Nathan Robertson, England
Women's doubles	Joanne Goode and Donna Kellogg, England	Chor Hooi Yee and Lim Pek Siah, Malaysia	Tammy Jenkins & Rhona Robertson, New Zealand Elinor Middlemiss & Sandra Watt, Scotland
Mixed doubles	Simon Archer and Joanne Goode, England	Nathan Robertson and Joanne Davies, England	Peter Blackburn & Rhonda Cator, Australia Chris Hunt & Donna Kellogg, England

Boxing[link]

Cricket[link]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's cricket	South Africa	Australia	New Zealand

Cycling[link]

[edit] Track cycling

[edit] Road bicycle racing

Gymnastics[link]

[edit] Field hockey

• Main article: Men's Hockey at the 1998 Commonwealth Games
• Main article: Women's Hockey at the 1998 Commonwealth Games

Lawn bowls[link]

Event	Gold	Silver	Bronze
Men's singles	Roy Garden, Zimbabwe	John Price, Wales	Gerald Baker, South Africa and Jeremy Henry, Northern Ireland
Women's singles	Lesley Hartwell, South Africa	Saedeh Abdul Rahim, Malaysia	Jean Baker, England and Millie Khan, New Zealand
Men's doubles	Brett Duprez and Mark Jacobsen, Australia	Robert Thomas and Robert Weale, Wales	Mohamed Aziz Maswadi & Mohamed Tazman Tahir, Malaysia and Themis Fraser & Rudi Jacobs, South Africa
Women's doubles	Margaret Letham and Joyce Lindores, Scotland	Cathelean du Plessis and Lynne Lindsay-Payne, Namibia	Gordana Baric & Willow Fong, Australia and Rita Jones & Ann Sutherland, Wales
Men's fours	Northern Ireland	Australia	South Africa and  Wales
Women's fours	South Africa	Australia	England and  Malaysia

Netball[link]

Rugby sevens[link]

Shooting[link]

Squash[link]

Ten-pin bowling[link]

Weightlifting[link]

See also[link]

• Sport in Malaysia

External links[link]

• The Official Kuala Lumpur 98 - 16th Commonwealth Games Website
• Unofficial site
• KL 98 Games Archives

References[link]

Commonwealth Games

130px Seal of the Commonwealth Games Federation
165px Commonwealth Games Federation Flag
Abbreviation	CG
Motto	Humanity – Equality – Destiny
First event	1930
Occur every	every 4 years
Purpose	Commonwealth Sports
Headquarters	London, United Kingdom
President	Prince Tunku Imran
Website	Commonwealth Games Federation

The Commonwealth Games is an international, multi-sport event involving athletes from the Commonwealth of Nations. The event was first held in 1930 and takes place every four years.

It was initially known as the British Empire Games and was renamed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954 and the British Commonwealth Games in 1970, before finally gaining its current title for the 1978 edition. The Games are overseen by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), which also controls the sporting programme and selects the host cities. A host city is selected for each edition and eighteen cities in seven countries have hosted the event.

As well as many Olympic sports, the Games also include some sports that are played mainly in Commonwealth countries, such as lawn bowls, rugby sevens and netball.^[1] Only six teams have attended every Commonwealth Games: Australia, Canada, England, New Zealand, Scotland and Wales. Australia has been the highest achieving team for eleven games, England for seven and Canada for one.

Although there are 54 members of the Commonwealth of Nations, 71 teams participate in the Commonwealth Games as a number of British overseas territories, Crown dependencies, and island states compete under their own flag. The four Home Nations of the United Kingdom – England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland – also send separate teams.

History[link]

A sporting competition bringing together the members of the British Empire was first proposed by the Reverend Astley Cooper in 1891 when he wrote an article in The Times suggesting a "Pan-Britannic-Pan-Anglican Contest and Festival every four years as a means of increasing the goodwill and good understanding of the British Empire".

In 1911, the Festival of the Empire was held in London to celebrate the coronation of King George V. As part of the festival an Inter-Empire Championships was held in which teams from Australia, Canada, South Africa and the United Kingdom competed in events such as boxing, wrestling, swimming and athletics.

In 1928, Melville Marks Robinson of Canada was asked to organise the first British Empire Games. The first Games were held in 1930 in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The name changed to British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954, to British Commonwealth Games in 1970 and assumed the current name of the Commonwealth Games in 1978.^[2]

At the 1930 games, women competed in the swimming events only.^[3] From 1934, women also competed in some athletics events^{[citation needed]}.

The Commonwealth Paraplegic Games were held alongside the Commonwealth Games from 1962 to 1974.^[4] In the regular Commonwealth Games, athletes with a disability were first included in exhibition events at the 1994 Victoria, Canada Games.^[5] At the 2002 Manchester Games they were included as full members of their national teams, making them the first fully inclusive international multi-sport games. This meant that results were included in the medal count.^[6]

The Empire Games flag was donated in 1931 by the British Empire Games Association of Canada. The year and location of subsequent games were added until the 1950 games. The name of the event was changed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games and the flag was retired as a result.

• Commonwealth Winter Games
• Commonwealth Youth Games

The 2006 relay passing through Wagga Wagga, New South Wales, Australia

Traditions[link]

• From 1930 to 1950, the parade of nations was led by a single flagbearer carrying the Union Flag.
• Since 1958, the Queen's Baton Relay has taken place, in which athletes carry a baton from Buckingham Palace to the games opening ceremony. This baton has within it Queen Elizabeth II's message of greeting to the athletes. The baton's final bearer is usually a famous sporting personage of the host nation.
• All other nations march in English alphabetical order, except that the first nation marching in the Parade of Athletes is the host nation of the previous games, and the host nation of the current games marches last. In 2006 countries marched in alphabetical order in geographical regions.

The Big helium aerostat with traditional Indian Rajasthani puppets attached, during the 2010 Commonwealth Games opening ceremony

• Three national flags fly from the stadium on the poles that are used for medal ceremonies: Previous host nation, Current host nation, Next host nation.
• The military is more active in the Opening Ceremony than in the Olympic Games. This is to honour the British Military traditions of the Old Empire.

      Countries that have hosted, or plan to host, the event
      Other countries that enter the games
      Countries that have entered the games but no longer do so
0•0 Host cities and year of games

Editions[link]

The first edition of the event was the 1930 British Empire Games and eleven nations took part. The quadrennial schedule of the games was interrupted by the Second World War and the 1942 Games (set to be held in Montreal) and the 1946 Games were abandoned.^[7] The games were continued in 1950 and underwent a name change four years later with the first British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954.^[2] Over 1000 athletes participated in the 1958 Games as over thirty teams took part for the first time.^[8]

The event was briefly known as the British Commonwealth Games for the 1970 and 1974 editions and the 1978 Games, held in Edmonton, Canada, were the first to be held under the title of the "Commonwealth Games".^[2] The Edmonton event marked a new high as almost 1500 athletes from 46 countries took part.^[8]

Participation at the 1986 Games was affected by a boycott by some African and Caribbean nations in protest to the participation of New Zealand, following the All Blacks Rugby tour of Apartheid era South Africa in 1985, but the Games rebounded and continued to grow thereafter. The 1998 Commonwealth Games in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia saw the sporting programme grow from 10 to 15 sports as team sports were allowed for the first time.^[2] Participation also reached new levels as over 3500 athletes represented 70 teams at the event. At the Games in Melbourne in 2006, over 4000 athletes took part in sporting competitions.^[8]

The three nations to have hosted the games the most number of times are Australia (5), Canada (4) and New Zealand (3). Furthermore, six editions have taken place, or will take place, in the countries within the United Kingdom (Scotland 3, England 2 and Wales 1). Two cities have held the games on multiple occasions: Auckland (1950 and 1990), and Edinburgh (1970 and 1986).

Games	Year	Host	Dates	Sports	Events	Nations	Competitors
British Empire Games
I	1930	Hamilton, Canada	16 – 23 August	6	59	11	400
II	1934	London, England	4 – 11 August	6	68	16	500
III	1938	Sydney, Australia	5 – 12 February	7	71	15	464
IV	1950	Auckland, New Zealand	4 – 11 February	9	88	12	590
British Empire and Commonwealth Games
V	1954	Vancouver, Canada	30 July – 7 August	9	91	24	662
VI	1958	Cardiff, Wales	18 – 26 July	9	94	36	1122
VII	1962	Perth, Australia	22 November – 1 December	9	104	35	863
VIII	1966	Kingston, Jamaica	4 – 13 August	9	110	34	1050
British Commonwealth Games
IX	1970	Edinburgh, Scotland	16 – 25 July	9	121	42	1383
X	1974	Christchurch, New Zealand	24 January – 2 February	9	121	38	1276
Commonwealth Games
XI	1978	Edmonton, Canada	3 – 12 August	10	128	46	1474
XII	1982	Brisbane, Australia	30 September — 9 October	10	142	46	1583
XIII	1986	Edinburgh, Scotland	24 July – 2 August	10	163	26	1662
XIV	1990	Auckland, New Zealand	24 January – 3 February	10	204	55	2073
XV	1994	Victoria, Canada	18 – 28 August	10	217	63	2557
XVI	1998	Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia	11 – 21 September	15	213	70	3633
XVII	2002	Manchester, England	25 July – 4 August	171	281	72	3679
XVIII	2006	Melbourne, Australia	15 – 26 March	162	245	71	4049
XIX	2010	Delhi, India	3 – 14 October	173	272	71	6700
XX	2014	Glasgow, Scotland	23 July – 3 August
XXI	2018	Gold Coast, Australia	4 April – 15 April
XXII	2022	TBA	TBA

Notes

¹Includes 3 team sports ²Includes 4 team sports ³Includes 3 team sports

Total Commonwealth Games by country[link]

Rank	Country	Region	Editions hosted
1	Australia	Oceania	5 (1938, 1962, 1982, 2006, 2018)
2	Canada	Americas	4 (1930, 1954, 1978, 1994)
3	New Zealand	Oceania	3 (1950, 1974, 1990)
	Scotland	Europe	3 (1970, 1986, 2014)
5	England	Europe	2 (1934, 2002)
6	India	Asia	1 (2010)
	Malaysia	Asia	1 (1998)
	Jamaica	Caribbean	1 (1966)
	Wales	Europe	1 (1958)

Approved sports[link]

There are a total of 21 sports (with two multi-disciplinary sports) and a further seven para-sports which are approved by the Commonwealth Games Federation. They are categorised into three types. Core sports must be included on each programme. A number of optional sports may be picked by the host nation, which may include some team sports such as basketball. Recognised sports are sports which have been approved by the CGF but which are deemed to need expansion; host nations may not pick these sports for their programme until the CGF's requirements are fulfilled.^[9]