Australia’s Gold Coast will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games

The Gold Coast in Australia will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, it was announced last night.

The Australian bid saw off competition from Hambantota, Sri Lanka, the tsunami-ravaged city that had hoped to use the games to spur reconstruction.

Instead, delegates at the Commonwealth Games Federations’ General Assembly voted 43-27 in favour of Gold Coast.

It will be the fifth time Australia has hosted the games, with previous editions taking place in Sydney in 1938, Perth in 1962, Brisbane in 1982 and Melbourne in 2006.

Queensland Premier Anna Bligh was on hand in St Kitt’s for the announcement and expressed her delight at the result.

“It’s been a very, very close vote and there was a good chance we weren’t going to make it, but all of the hard work has paid off,” she said.

“I’m so proud of this team, so proud of the Gold Coast, and so proud of being a Queenslander tonight.”

The Gold Coast was seen as a clear favourite to get the nod, with a vote for Hambantota requiring a leap of faith from delegates. Sri Lanka is emerging from the affects of a 26-year-long civil war, while Hambantota was devastated by a tsunami in 2004 and wanted to use the games to focus investment in the region.

The decision to hand the games to Gold Coast means that basketball and triathlon will take their place in the field of 17 sports, the only differences from the Sri Lankan bid which had favoured archery and tennis.

The 2014 edition of the games will be held in Glasgow, and Glasgow 2014 chairman Lord Smith was quick to congratulate Gold Coast. “I would like to congratulate the Gold Coast in Australia on their successful campaign to be selected as the host city for the XXI Commonwealth Games,” he said in a statement.

“Every Games is different and each reflects the particular culture and spirit of the nation and city. There are, however, many opportunities to learn from previous Games and an effective transfer of knowledge is really important, particularly in the early stages of planning for the Games.

“We are looking forward to working with the next Organising Committee and sharing our experience with them.”

Hambantota had aimed to be just the third Asian host, following Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia in 1998 and the trouble-plagued games in New Delhi last year.

Ahead of the vote, the Commonwealth Games Federation Evaluation Commission described the Gold Coast’s plans as “exciting” after completing an inspection visit earlier this year, when the popular theme park SeaWorld was clearly visible in the background during a trip to the proposed games aquatics venue on the Gold Coast broadwater.

“Overall, we can tell you that the proposition of staging the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast is an exciting one and appears, based on our initial analysis, to be sound,” said Scotland’s Louise Martin, who led the evaluation commission, said in an assessment delivered to all 71 member associations.

During an assessment of Hambantota’s bid, the evaluation team was satisfied that Hambantota could guarantee a “safe and peaceful” games, but warned that significant investment was needed in telecommunications infrastructure, transport and hospitals and said staging the games there presents a “medium-to-high risk” compared with the “low risk” of the Gold Coast.