Race on to be first to get hands on medal

MELBOURNE - And then it started raining, on the baton relay no less.

After the final flood of athletes poured into Melbourne in energy sapping 36-plus degrees heat on Sunday, they woke to find the city drenched yesterday, just in time for several official events designed to start whipping the sports mad population of Melbourne into a Games frenzy.

With Australia celebrating their Labour Day annual holiday yesterday, Games planners had scheduled all manner of quirky entertainment, street parades and buskers in the central city along with Prince Edward cavorting around some of the Games venues.

The schedule of events also included the arrival of the Commonwealth Games Baton to the outskirts of the city carried by all manner of former Australian sports stars, music and television celebrities.

But it rained, quite literally putting a dampener on proceedings.

Already the mood of the city is, at best, indifferent towards the event, although Melbourne indifference still means 70,000 people have purchased tickets to the opening ceremony tomorrow night.

The taxi cab drivers, themselves a league of nations within the city, comprising - from first hand experience - Greeks, Somalis, Indians and (as far as could be deciphered) Israelis, are not helping to foster the "Friendly Games" theme.

"You here for the Olympics?" said one, seemingly unaware of his error.

"Not good for me. Bloody hopeless. Too much traffic makes long time driving and everybody take public transport for free (sic)."

It is the free public transport for Games athletes, volunteers and media that has rubbed the cabbies up the wrong way. They don't think losing the chance of pocketing fares from 12,000-odd people directly involved in the Games is a far cop.

Similarly the rest of the population of Melbourne appear to be more inconvenienced by the event than enthused.

Despite expecting from all accounts 88 medals, from the stable of world class athletes that make up the Australian team, there is no palpable level of excitement here.

They are angry main traffic routes have "Games Only" lanes they attract $165 fines if they stray there.

They are more interested in the impending Formula One race next month.

But for the New Zealand team the impending competition phase of the games put them a little on edge as they went through the formality of the flag raising ceremony at the Games Village last night.

It was a gentle prompt about the significance of the next 12 days.

The Australian sporting 'medal count' mindset has infiltrated the New Zealanders.

The unofficial expectation is for the Kiwi medal count to crack past the half century if everyone arrives in personal best form.

Officially Sparc chief executive Nick Hill has stated that at least 46 medals would mean they could justify the $30 million investment in athletes in the lead up to this event, at the same time saying that a haul of less than 40 medals "would mean there would have to be some serious questions asked about how well our high performance systems are working".

So now the race is on among the New Zealand competitors to see who will be the first to win a medal, and it might just be one the lads we officially trumpet as a regional representative, butterfly specialist Moss Burmester of Tauranga, who will be first to climb the podium.

Burmester is ranked as a medal contender in the 200-metre fly.

He lives in Auckland now but still calls the Bay of Plenty home. He finished fourth in Manchester and has improved significantly since. His final is set for around 8pm on Thursday night. He may be trumped by freestyler Helen Norfolk who is also a medal chance in the 200-metre free an hour beforehand, but as we speak is being talked up as the most likely to kick start the New Zealand effort.

In other words, everyone is poised for the starter's gun after a few fireworks at the opening shindig at the famous Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) tomorrow night.

Hopefully the opening party will be loud enough to rouse Melbournians from their Commonwealth Games slumber.

- NORTHERN ADVOCATE