Commonwealth Games off to a flying start

The Commonwealth Games kicked off on Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia <br>

16 March 2006 12:29 GMT / By Chris Hall

The Commonwealth Games kicked off on Wednesday in Melbourne, Australia.

Australia, of course, after their successes in the last Olympics are favourites to walk away with many of the medals.

Day one has seen an opening barrage of events in an action-packed programme covering some of Britain's top events at the Games - swimming and track cycling. So far, Scotland's Caitlin McClatchey and David Carry have won gold in the pool.

In the men's 4x100m freestyle relay, Olympic champions South Africa rounded off the opening night by beating Australia by a finger.

In the cycling, England took the 4,000m individual pursuit by storm and England's Victoria Pendleton won silver in the 500m time trial. Meanwhile Chris Hoy (Scotland) and Jason Queally (England) took silver and bronze behind a fierce performance from Australia's Ben Kersten in the 1,000m time trial.

The Games is being televised around the world, and viewers in the UK can catch the events on the BBC, those with digital TV can select events by pressing their red button.

Look out for the Triathlon which takes place on Saturday morning in Melbourne; viewers in the UK can catch the event on Friday night on BBC1.

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Sports Fitness, Athletics, Sports Fitness events, Commonwealth games 2006