Andrew Dickens: Maybe we were too quick to write off the Comm games

It took a while for the Commonwealth Games to get going, but yesterday they did. 

Lewis Clareburt took gold in the 200 metres butterfly with an insane burst over the last 50 metres, in a race even he called stupid.

It was a good feeling for the nation, because no disrespect to the earlier medallists, it’s gold that gets the nation going.

It’s been a funny old Comm Games thus far. 

It’s a scaled down replacement event after Victoria lost their bottle and cancelled their scheduled games.

And it’s been plagued by no shows from high-performance athletes who thought it beneath their participation.

But it’s a good meet. 

To win at the Commonwealth Games still supersedes any win in a national competition.

To be the best swimmer amongst nations like Australia or England, or any of the 74 nations present, is a big thing. 

By the way, this is a record number of countries.

When Christchurch hosted back in 1974, they were called the Friendly Games.

Watching the coverage from the Crowd Goes Wild team, which is on both Sky and 3, they’ve got into that vibe.

They celebrate the great but also the wacky, the loose and the fun aspects of the Games with their tongues firmly in their cheeks. 

It’s a good watch and a healthy antidote to the cynical and world-weary news we get day in and day out from a globe mired in difficulty. 

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