Commonwealth Games: Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia 1998
The 1998 Commonwealth Games were held between 11-21 September 1998.
Sports
- Fifteen sports were featured in the Kuala Lumpur Games – aquatics, athletics, badminton, boxing, cricket, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, netball, lawn bowls, rugby 7s, shooting, tenpin bowling, weight lifting and wrestling.
- Four new sports were introduced in this year's games, and this included the first time team sports will be played at the Commonwealth Games. The new sports were Cricket, Men's and Women's Hockey, Netball and Rugby - 7's
- In an attempt to modernize the Games, several team sports were included - such as cricket, rugby and netball and men’s and women’s field hockey. Up until this time, team sports had not been included in order to emphasize that the games were between individuals and not nations. The team sports were an overwhelming success that added large numbers to both participators and TV audience numbers.
Trivia
- For the first time in the 68-year history of the Commonwealth Games, the host city was situated in Asia.
- The XVI Games, they were held at Kuala Lumpur in the Malaysian state of Selangor.
- Malaysia placed their own flavor on the Games, with the Queen’s Baton being carried into the stadium on an elephant. The baton was presented to Prince Edward by Malaysia’s first-ever Commonwealth medal winner Koh Eng Tong, a bronze medalist in weight lifting in 1954.
- A new record of 70 countries sent a total of 5,250 athletes and officials to the Kuala Lumpur Games.
Medal Count
The top five countries in the medal standing were Australia, England, Canada, Malaysia and South Africa. Nauru also achieved an impressive haul of three gold medals.
The following list includes the first four ranked teams. The ranking list for all years is available here.
| Year | Country | GOLD | SILVER | BRONZE | TOTAL |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1998 | Australia England Canada Malaysia |
80 36 30 10 |
61 47 31 14 |
57 53 38 12 |
198 136 99 36 |
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