4 Oct 2010

Athletes soak up Opening Ceremony as Delhi Games open

12:01 pm on 4 October 2010

The Commonwealth Games opening ceremony concluded without problem this morning, with more than 60-thousand people packing in to Delhi's Jaharwalal Nehru's stadium.

The Cook Islands flag bearer was lawn bowler Kanny Vaile, while squash player Barbara Stubbings, who is attending her first Games in Delhi, says she was stunned to be given the honour for Papua New Guinea.

"Absolutely surprised, yeah. It came as a shock as we've got quite a few prominent athletes in our group so, yeah, a great honour."

In a change from tradition the teams entered the stadium early to watch the show.

PNG's Chef De Mission, Tamzin Wardley, says the looks on the faces of those taking part for the first time always ensures it's a special event.

There's such excitement, you know, as everyone gets dressed and gets ready for the parade and there's huge delays you go through while you wait to go on. But everyone's so exicted and running around meeting athletes from all the other countries, swapping pins and taking photos. For those of us who have done it a quite a few times it's really refreshing to watch that absolute unbridalled enthusiasm.

Among the sports getting underway later today are swimming, badminton, lawn bowls and netball.