The Commonwealth Games have begun!
Gold Coast 2018 organisers held a spectacular opening ceremony welcoming the 71 nations and territories and 4,500 athletes from across the Commonwealth.
HRH The Prince of Wales read the message from the Queen’s Baton, which has spent the last year travelling across all Commonwealth nations and was finally brought into the stadium by Australian hurdler Sally Pearson. He added: “These friendly Games have showed the potential of the Commonwealth to connect people of different backgrounds and nationalities."
The Opening Ceremony, which focused on celebrating the history of the Gold Coast, featured many of Team England’s athletes who were the third nation to be paraded through the Carrara Stadium, the athletics competition venue. Team England was led out by reigning Commonwealth triathlon champion Alistair Brownlee, with the team proudly wearing Team England’s special Opening Ceremony wear; 'The Journey' which was created by a partnership between local Gold Coast primary school Southport State School, and St Philip’s Primary School (of Southport, England).
Keep up with the action
The athletics starts on Sunday; click here to view the schedule.
We'll be providing written round ups each day on our website.
The BBC will be providing our sports coverage on television.
Facts and figures about Team England at the 2018 Commonwealth Games
Team England is the best representation of England as it is today with almost athletes from all across the nation, able bodied and para competing as one team and from all walks of life and a nearly equitable number of male and female athletes.
- 390 athletes
- 194 male and 196 female athletes
- 41 para-athletes plus 3 pilots/directors
- The team will compete across all 18 sports at the Games including 7 para-sport disciplines
- 198 support staff – media, medical, village