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Commonwealth Games: opening ceremony

Updated: Your quick Guide to the Opening Ceremony and Day 1 events.

cwgamUnless you’ve been living under a rock you’ll know that the Commonwealth Games get underway tomorrow.

The Opening Ceremony screens tomorrow morning at 5.30am AEST on TEN (although Perth viewers will be delayed at 5:30am local time) hosted by Mel McLaughlin and Matt White, with Gordon Bray, Liz Ellis and Nicole Livingstone as commentary. It will be repeated at 4pm on ONE AEST.

Queen Elizabeth will declare the Games officially open, with performers including Rod Stewart, Susan Boyle, singer-songwriter Amy Macdonald, violinist Nicola Benedetti and Gaelic-language singer Julie Fowlis.

First sports event begin at 6pm AEST on ONE (Live around the country) hosted by TEN Sport’s Greg Rust with Nicole Livingstone, Melinda Gainsford-Taylor, Liz Ellis and Rob de Castella.

At 9:30pm local time Live coverage switches to TEN, running overnight. Matt White, Steve Hooker and Leisel Jones host from 3am until 8:30am AEST hosted by Mel McLaughlin and Ian Thorpe. Most finals will take place overnight and early morning.

This is essentially the way TEN has structured its schedule, and will maintain general entertainment in early evenings through the Games.

ONE will repeat highlights during they daytime while tenplay.com.au offers alternate events on 8 digital channels.

The Games conclude on August 4th.

The first day of competition commences with the Hockeyroos playing, live on Glasgow Live at 6pm (AEST) on ONE. Hosted by TEN Sport’s Greg Rust, Glasgow Live delivers all of the action from the first of the sporting heats.

All eyes will be on the pool from 7.30pm (AEST) on ONE with the first of the swimming heats.

World champion Christian Sprenger, five-time Delhi gold medallist Alicia Coutts, brother and sister duo David and Emma McKeon, and the Campbell sisters all make a splash, aiming to swim for gold.

From 9.30pm (AEST), Glasgow Live on TEN – co-hosted by TEN’s Sport Mel McLaughlin along with Australian swimming legend Ian Thorpe – delivers further action from the pool with the Men’s 200m Breaststroke Heats from 9.30pm (AEST) and the Women’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay from 9.55pm (AEST).

Six Aussies will compete in the men’s and women’s triathlon, which returns to the Games after being absent from the Delhi 2010 competition schedule. The women’s triathlon, which commences from 8pm (AEST) on ONE and continues on TEN from 9.30pm, features Aussie two-time world champion Emma Moffatt, while the men’s event begins at midnight (AEST) on TEN.

Aussie flagbearer Anna Meares is set to fly in the Women’s 500m Time Trial from 1.40am (AEST) as the Aussie and Brits’ track cycling rivalry begins.

The action of the XX Commonwealth Games continues right through the night on TEN. At 3am (AEST) the Glasgow Live baton is handed over to Matt White, Leisel Jones, and Steve Hooker, live from the Glasgow studio.

With key swimming finals from 4am (AEST) including the Men’s 200m Breaststroke, Women’s 200m Freestyle, Women’s 4 x 100m Freestyle Relay and Men’s 400m Freestyle, it’s worth setting an alarm for an early start to watch the Aussies claim their first gold medals in the pool.

9 Responses

  1. I was disappointed to miss John Barrowman performing in this. I just saw clips of him performing when I watched The Project. Will there be another replay? Tenplay is running very slowly.

  2. Unfortunately I won’t be able to watch from 6pm as our Foxtel IQ doesn’t broadcast channel One.
    Are there any other ways to watch live from 6pm?

  3. @Dr_Rudi – you said it for me.

    @Simmyv – It’d be a long time between drinks if we only watched sport when the world’s best were playing. No weekend football (any code), no Sheffield Shield cricket, no Pan Pacific Swimming, no Giro D’Italia, and should I have stopped watching the Tour de France after Froome and Conrador crashed out?

    I think you’ll find that the Olympics are more archaic than the Commonwealth Games.

  4. @Simmyv

    So, you won’t be watching the Asian Games; nor the Asian Cup then? Good.

    As it happens, the Commomweatlh Games will feature a number of best in the world athletes:

    Usain Bolt, fastest man in the world over 100/200
    David Rudisha fastest over 800
    Mo Farah world champion at 5,000 and 10,000
    Nicol David, 7 times world squash champion
    Anna Meares, world champion time trial
    Brad Wiggins, reigning Olympic Gold Medalist time trial

    And that’s just off the top of my head.

  5. Can’t believe TEN paid show this.Why are these games still on.to watch commonwealth only athletes is not the same as watching the best in the world .i got up at 2 am and 5am every day for a month to watch the best soccer players play in the world at FIFA World Cup. But get up for the commonwealth games .no because the best athletes in the world are not competing.people want to watch the best athletes in the world compete . The commonwealth games is so archaic it should have been buried long ago.

  6. @Shoudy Chen – it’s because it won’t provide a good lead in and besides not many people would watch the ceremonies at 3.30am AWST. I reckon it’s fair
    @Bella – They won’t play it live for a ratings reason
    @Dave – actually I think it is shown in HD on One prior to Day 1 coverage
    @Pertinax – there will be coverage of road cycling and lawn bowls as I saw it on the EPG

  7. Not a lot of information about the lawn bowls and road cycling though.

    The ABC published schedules for when they would show whole matches.

  8. And this will include regional and remote WA viewers. Why would WA having a 2-hour delay of the Commonwealth Games? That is just so unfair from Channel Ten Perth.

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