Hayden Wilde is looking to back up his Olympic bronze with a medal at the Commonwealth Games. Photo / INPHO/Bryan Keane
Everything you need to know about the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
So it's Comm Games time?
It sure is. Those four years went fast. The 22nd Commonwealth Games heads back to the UK and it's Birmingham's time to host. The United Kingdom's second-largest city, famous for *checks Wikipedia* ... Dexys Midnight Runners, will welcome 4,500 athletes from 72 nations and territories for 11 days from July 29 to August 9.
The opening ceremony (which starts 7am Friday, NZT), the closing ceremony and the athletics will take place at Alexander Stadium which has been a regular host of the UK Diamond League event. It will have a capacity of 32,000 for the Commonwealth Games.
The cricket will take place at Edgbaston Cricket Ground, where Brian Lara scored his famous 501 for Warwickshire, while the gymnastics, basketball, beach volleyball, triathlon, hockey, squad and marathon will all be in Birmingham city.
Other sports will be in the West Midlands Region with the rugby sevens hosted in Coventry, the lawn bowls at Leamington Spa, aquatics at Sandwell, netball in Solihull and the cycling in Warwick (road race) and Wolverhampton (time trials). While the track cycling will be in London.
As well as the NZ Herald's extensive digital and print coverage, listen to live wall-to-wall commentary on Gold Sport from 7pm each night with commentators Jason Pine, Elliott Smith, Malcolm Jordan, Andrew Alderson and Nick Bewley, plus regular updates on Newstalk ZB.
Sky TV will have Commonwealth Games coverage across six channels. The Sky Sport Now streaming service is also offering a dedicated Commonwealth Games pass for $24.99. Free-to-air coverage including daily highlights shows will be on Prime TV.
What does the schedule look like?
The Herald will be publishing a daily schedule. For a full list of New Zealand athletes, teams and results click here.
The official Birmingham 2022 website is the place to go for a full rundown of what events are taking place when. Click here to check it out.
I want to know everything about the New Zealand team
The New Zealand team includes 233 athletes, from 19 sports and two para-sports. 125 (54 percent) of the athletes are female and 108 male (46 percent).
The team members come from a wide range of cultural backgrounds, including athletes with Samoan, Tongan, Cook Islands, Fijian, Filipino, Chinese, Australian, European and African heritage. Māori athletes make up 20 percent of the team (46 athletes).
New Zealand's youngest athlete heading to Birmingham is 16-year-old diver Maggie Squire who is in year 12 at Auckland's Takapuna Grammar School.
At 75-years-old, B2-B3 lawn bowler Sue Curran will become New Zealand's oldest ever Commonwealth Games athlete.
Auckland has produced the largest number of the Commonwealth Games athletes with 57 of the team hailing from the region. Canterbury comes in second with 32 athletes, the Waikato third with 29 and Bay of Plenty fourth with 17 athletes.
140 of the athletes will be attending their first Commonwealth Games, while the other 93 have already competed at one or more Games. Misha Koudinov (Gymnastics) and Val Smith (Lawn Bowls) are the most capped athletes, heading to their fifth Commonwealth Games.
And they're going to win right?
New Zealand took home 46 medals from the Gold Coast in 2018, 15 of those gold, and will be hoping for around the same. Dame Sophie Pascoe returns to the pool where she will be competing in just one event. Joelle King, who won two gold and a bronze in 2018, is back as are fellow gold medallists Tom Walsh (shot put), David Liti (weightlifting), Julia Ratcliffe (hammer throw), Sam Gaze (mountain biking) while the women's hockey team and the men's and women's sevens teams are out to defend their titles.
There is also plenty of medal contenders in the likes of young stars Hayden Wilde (triathlon), Lewis Clareburt (400 IM), Erika Fairweather (400m freestyle), Sam Tanner (1500m athletics), Zoe Hobbs (100m athletics), Niamh Fisher-Black (cycling) and the 3x3 basketball teams.
Is there a mascot?
Come on! How can you ask that question? Of course, there is.
Meet Perry, a multi-coloured bull. Despite being a look-a-like of Elmer the Elephant he seems a good sort. According to the official website Perry "is a proper Brummie: strong, kind and a little bit cheeky, and he can't wait to get the party started".
He also "loves sport" which was probably high on his CV. Here's some colour-in sheets.
Despite the recent heatwave in the UK, temperatures for the first few days will be around 22-23 degrees with some rain expected, according to the Met Office. It won't be an issue for the track cyclists however who race indoors, and are competing in London.
New sports
Basketball 3x3 and women's T20 cricket are making debuts. Cricket was last played at the 1998 Games - 50 over matches for men only. Meanwhile, 19 shooting events have been given the bullet from the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Full list of sports
Aquatics diving, aquatics swimming and para swimming, athletics and para athletics, badminton, basketball 3x3, beach volleyball, boxing, cricket - Twenty20, cycling - mountain biking, cycling - road race, cycling - time trial, cycling - track and para track, gymnastics artistic, gymnastics rhythmic, hockey, judo, lawn bowls and para lawn bowls, netball, para power lifting, rugby sevens, squash, table tennis and para table tennis, triathlon and para triathlon, wheelchair basketball 3x3, weightlifting, wrestling.
Full list of New Zealand team - From Andrews to Zeimann
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