Jamaica's Shellene Wlliams (1594) waits to collect the baton from Novlene Williams after it was dropped at the hand-over during the women's 4x400m relay final at the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on Saturday. Jamaica, who had a big lead prior to the mishap, eventually got fourth in 3:34.91 seconds. England, first past the post, were disqualified for a lane violation and Australia (3:29.57 promoted to the gold medal position. India and Nigeria were also prtomoted to get the silver and bronze medals respectively. - REUTERS
MELBOURNE, Australia (CMC):
A MAGNIFICENT closing ceremony ended the 18th Commonwealth Games that the Caribbean contingent from Jamaica ended as its best ever appearance at the event.
His Royal Highness Prince Edward formally closed the Commonwealth Games in front of more than 83,000 fans inside the MCG Stadium last night.
Jamaica finished the 11-day event with a national record 10 gold, four silver, and eight bronze medals - all from track and field - for seventh position in the medal table - ranking by gold medals - and ninth in the table, ranked by overall medal totals.
Melbourne 2006 Chairman Ron Walker addressed the crowd, saying the Closing Ceremony was a celebration of "the greatest coalition of Commonwealth nations ever seen".
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) flag was lowered by a party representing Australia's three emergency services, and handed to Suresh Kalmadi, Chairman of the Organising Committee for the 2010 Delhi Games, before 800 Indian performers marked the hand over of the Games.
THE BEST
Head of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Mike Fennell, the Jamaica Olympic Association (JOA) president, praised the Melbourne organisers for an event he described as "simply the best".
Fennell also named Indian Shooting athlete Samaresh Jung as the winner of the inaugural David Dixon Award.
Jung won an incredible seven medals at the Games, five gold, one silver and one bronze and set three new Games records along the way.
The CGF established the David Dixon Award, in memory of the man who served as its Honorary Secretary for 17 years, to reward the outstanding athlete at each Commonwealth Games.
Hosts Australia enjoyed considerable dominance in the medals.
They won 84 gold, 69 silver and 68 bronze for a total of 221, significantly more than any other nation at the games.
They outgunned their rivals in the medals whether by the gold medal rankings or by totals, and in the rankings by gold medals, England got second with 36 gold, 40 silver, and 34 bronze, followed by Canada (26-29-31), and India (22-17-11).
South Africa (12-13-13) placed fifth and Scotland (11-7-11) sixth, followed by Jamaica, and Malaysia (7-12-10), New Zealand (6-12-13) and Kenya (6-5-7).
Jamaica, who hosted the 1966 Commonwealth Games in Kingston, ended second in track and field with their medal haul with Australia (16-12-13) the only team ahead of them in that discipline.
The only non-track and field medals for the region came from Trinidad and Tobago's Roger Daniel in shooting and the Barbadian heavyweight Anderson Emmanuel in the boxing ring, both securing bronze.
CREATED HISTORY
Jamaica created history at the games by becoming the first nation to capture gold in every sprint event contested in track and field - all the 100 and 200-metre races and 4X100-metre relays for men and women.
Jamaica got their 10 gold medals through the men's and women's 100 metres (Asafa Powell and Sheri-Ann Brooks), the 200s (Omar Brown and Sherone Simpson), Tanto Campbell (EAD men's discus), Trecia Smith (women's triple jump), Maurice Wignall (men's 110m hurdles), Brigitte Foster-Hylton (100 hurdles), and the men's and women's 4X100-metre relays.
