Delta Goodrem’s closing ceremony spectacular wow Glasgow Games

Aussie pop iron Delta Goodrem rocked the closing ceremony of the Glasgow Commonwealth Games. Bringing the energy, a bedazzled Goodrem played a medley of her hits including Sitting on Top of the World.

Goodrem also brought in Scottish artist Cammy Barnes to help sing Australia’s unofficial national anthem, You’re the Voice – complete with live bagpipes. Australia’s netballers were spotted singing and dancing among the crowd of athletes at The Hydro, the same venue at which they won bronze earlier in the day.

Australia’s Commonwealth Games team not only topped the medal count – they’ve more than doubled rival England’s gold medal count.

A bit like the Ashes series in Australia last summer, England simply couldn’t catch us after the Aussies established a commanding lead early in the Games.

While the 2022 Birmingham Games medal tally race came down to a final day, which Australia won with 67 gold medals to England’s 58, Glasgow was a landslide.

As the final event crossed the finish line at the Sir Chris Hoy Velodrome Australia had a stunning medal tally of 70 gold, 45 silver and 56 bronze medals. To put that into perspective, Australia won more gold medals than the next three nations combined with England ranked second with 29 gold medals, Canada third with 19 gold and India fourth with 13 gold medals.

In winning 70 gold medals from 215 events, Australia not only surpassed their Birmingham gold medal tally, but they did it from 73 fewer events.

At the pool, on the track and in the velodrome Advance Australia Fair was heard on repeat as a green and gold tidal wave took over Glasgow.

The dominant performance also helps bury the demons from 12 years ago when Australia came to Glasgow for the 2014 Games but England actually won the medal tally with 58 gold medals to 49.

This is not the end of the campaign for many of Australia’s leading athletes, with the swimmers already in California for the Pan Pacs starting next week, the athletics team remaining in Europe for Diamond League events and several other Aussies staying on to pursue further international competitions.

The final medals of the Commonwealth Games over the weekend included a netball bronze for the Diamonds, who bounced back from their shock one-point loss to Jamaica in the semi-finals, defeating England 68-50. In the early hours of Monday Australian time, Alyssa Polites has won gold in the women’s elimination race to claim Australia’s 10th cycling gold of the Games.

Georgia Baker won silver and was named Australia’s flag-bearer for the closing ceremony. Australian para-cyclist Tara Neyland won her second gold medal at the Commonwealth Games with victory in the women’s C4-C5 1000m time trial.

Several players including Courtney Bruce, Sophie Garbin and Sophie Dwyer were emotional and shed some tears after the bronze medal game as the reality of what might have been set it. The Diamonds had never missed a gold medal match at the Commonwealth Games before.

The passing of the Commonwealth Games baton to Ahmedabad, India, for 2030 was celebrated with some bouncy Bollywood performances from the next host nation.

Scottish rock icons Simple Minds closed the Commonwealth Games in style. The closing ceremony finished with local acts, including legendary Scottish DJ George Bowie.

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