Sports Minister congratulates Australian Commonwealth Games athletes

Federal Minister for Sport Peter Dutton has congratulated the Australian athletes that competed in the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.

In a statement, Minister Dutton explained “it takes a tremendous amount of skill and dedication to represent your country and I’m immensely proud of our team, which brought home 137 Commonwealth Games medals, including 49 gold medals.

“While we finished as number two nation overall, Australian athletes broke three world records and 21 Commonwealth records.

“It was particularly pleasing to see so many young athletes, who were participating for the first time at this level, finish on the podium.

“We saw 18-year-old school girl Eleanor Patterson win gold in the high jump, 17-year-old Chloe Raynor win bronze in judo, and para swimmers Rowan Crothers (16) and Maddison Elliott (15) both win gold, breaking world records in the process.

“There were countless other memorable individual and team performances in Glasgow; however, the performance of the English showed that we have work to do if we’re to regain our standing as the number one sporting nation in the Commonwealth.

“I am confident that the performances of our athletes position us for a bright future as we head towards the 2016 Rio Games and 2018 Gold Coast Commonwealth Games.

“I would like to thank the Australian Commonwealth Games Association and the entire Commonwealth Games team for providing such wonderful inspiration to a great number of Australians.

“We look forward to welcoming the Commonwealth to a first class Games at the Gold Coast in 2018.”

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