Australia have topped the medals count at the past six Commonwealth Games and are expected to do so again in Glasgow, although with a reduced number of medals, team officials said.
Australia came away with 178 medals, 74 of them gold, at the last Games in Delhi in 2010, but team officials are expecting a smaller total because of fewer medal events than four years ago.
The Australian Government-backed Australian Sports Commission is targeting 152 medals in Glasgow through its Winning Edge strategy program.
Australian Commonwealth Games Association president Sam Coffa said it will be difficult for the nation to surpass or match their Delhi total in Scotland this time.
“There are 11 fewer medal events in Glasgow than there were in Delhi, 261 as against 272. More athletes will compete for fewer medals,” Coffa said. “We also expect increased strong opposition from the teams from the home nations [England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland], all of which received significant amounts of preparation funding for both the London 2012 Olympic Games the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games.”
“India can also be expected to have a carry-over benefit from the home Games in Delhi, while the African and Caribbean nations are competing strongly,” he said.
Team chef de mission Steve Moneghetti has warned his country’s “armchair experts” not to expect their athletes to be gold medal-winning machines in Glasgow.
“I’m not panicking, but the Australian public needs to be realistic and understand this will be a very challenging Games to have the success they take for granted and expect at a Commonwealth Games,” Moneghetti said.
Once again the Australia team, numbering about 417 — the largest ever for an offshore Games — will be looking to their swimmers for a boost to the multi-sports competition with a target of 53 to 55 medals in the pool.
Australia have sent a powerful team of swimmers, including world champions Cate Campbell, Christian Sprenger and James Magnussen.
Magnussen is returning to the UK where he bombed out at the London Olympics when the much-fancied Australia 4x100m relay squad missed out on a medal and he then was touched out on individual 100m freestyle gold by one-hundredth of a second to the US’ Nathan Adrian.
The Australia swim team now has as their head coach Dutchman Jacco Verhaeren, who mentored world-record breaking Dutch legend Pieter van den Hoogenband.
Magnussen is convinced he can lower his 100m personal best time of 47.10 seconds and break Brazilian Cesar Cielo’s 100m record of 46.91 seconds.
Campbell is the reigning women’s 100m sprint champion, while Sprenger won the 100m breaststroke at last year’s Barcelona world championships.
Australia’s track and field team is to be spearheaded by Olympic 100m hurdles champion Sally Pearson and world championships javelin medalist Kim Mickle.
Pearson’s Games buildup has been hampered by a hamstring complaint, causing her to pull out of Diamond League meets in Rome and New York last month, but she relegated reigning US world champion Brianna Rollins to third spot in the 100m hurdles in Lucerne leading into Glasgow.
Cycling is another of Australia’s strengths and the team containing five reigning world champions is led by Olympic gold medalist Anna Meares, 30, competing in her fourth Commonwealth Games.
Meares is out to surpass Kathy Watt’s record seven Commonwealth Games medals by adding to her six-strong haul.
The Kookaburras, Australia’s men’s field hockey team, are another strong medal contender after beating the Netherlands 6-1 in last month’s World Cup final in The Hague.
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