Great party

22/09/1998

THANK you Ato Boldon; Susie O'Neill, Mick Gault, Cara Honeychurch, Kenny
Ang and the 5,000 other participants for making it a grand success.
Thank you to everyone who have come to Malaysia from the 69 countries
and territories of the Commonwealth to make the 16th Kuala Lumpur Games
the most successful and memorable in the series.
It has been a wonderful Games, where you have set numerous heart-
stopping Games records and one world record, and recorded countless
personal bests.
This has made the six years of planning since Kuala Lumpur was awarded
the Games in 1992 a worthwhile effort.
Building our stadia, training our athletes, and preparing to host the
Games for 11 days when the eyes of the world were focussed on Malaysia.
What a party it has been, and it couldn't have been done without all
parties concerned.
From mighty Australia, who won 78 gold medals, to Zambia, who return
home with one bronze.
From the Government of Malaysia, who pumped in more than RM2 billion to
get the Games going, right down to the athletes, officials, volunteers and
the hundreds of thousand of local and foreign fans.
We may pale in comparison when compared to the golden haul that
Australia harvested but let us award ourselves a big gold medal for having
staged a successful Commonwealth Games.
But no medals to the unkind critics and sceptics, at home and abroad,
who had constantly tried to derail the Malaysian effort.
You had cited the haze, the maze and almost everything else under the
sun for your doubts.
But it has been pleasantly sunny and the haze was nowhere to be seen.
And we believe that all the visitors to Malaysia - athlete, official and
sports tourist - have had a good time.
Now that Prime Minister Datuk Seri Dr Mahathir Mohamad has announced
that Malaysia would bid to host the Olympics, we hope to see you and the
rest of the world back in Kuala Lumpur in 2008.
We can promise you a good time, again.
MEDAL TALLY
G S B T
AUSTRALIA 80 61 58 199
ENGLAND 36 47 53 136
CANADA 30 31 38 99
MALAYSIA 10 14 12 36
SOUTH AFRICA 9 11 14 34
NEW ZEALAND 8 7 20 35
KENYA 8 5 4 17
INDIA 7 10 8 25
JAMAICA 4 2 0 6
WALES 3 4 8 15
SCOTLAND 3 2 7 12
NAURU 3 0 0 3
N IRELAND 2 1 2 5
ZIMBABWE 2 0 3 5
GHANA 1 1 3 5
CYPRUS 1 1 1 3
MAURITIUS 1 1 1 3
TANZANIA 1 1 1 3
TRINIDAD & TOBAGO 1 1 1 3
BAHAMAS 1 1 0 2
MOZAMBIQUE 1 1 0 2
BARBADOS 1 0 2 3
LESOTHO 1 0 0 1
CAMEROON 0 3 3 6
NAMIBIA 0 2 1 3
SEYCHELLES 0 2 0 2
SRI LANKA 0 1 1 2
BERMUDA 0 1 0 1
FIJI 0 1 0 1
ISLE OF MAN 0 1 0 1
PAKISTAN 0 1 0 1
PAPUA NEW GUINEA 0 0 1 1
UGANDA 0 0 1 1
ZAMBIA 0 0 1 1
(ENDS)