# Hambantota bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games

Hambantota 2018 was an unsuccessful bid to stage the 2018 Commonwealth Games by the city of Hambantota, Sri Lanka. The right to host the Games was won by the Gold Coast 2018 bid after a 43-27 vote by the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) General Assembly on 11 November 2011 in Saint Kitts.

## Background

The city made their surprise bid for the Games on March 31, 2010.
Hambantota planned on building many new venues if it won the bid, including an athletics stadium, an aquatic centre, a multi-sports complex, a velodrome stadium and a hockey stadium. The athletes village would have been located around the Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium, which would have been one of the venues. The remaining venues would have been built near the cricket stadium. Unlike the Gold Coast's plan, which include venues in the nearby cities of Brisbane, Cairns and Townsville, Hambantota's venues were all planned for the same area.

## Proposed venues

| Venue | Location | Sports | Capacity | Status |
| Mahinda Rajapaksa International Stadium | Hambantota | Ceremonies Archery | 60,000 2,500 | Existing/Expansion |
| International Aquatics Centre | Hambantota | Diving Swimming | 2,500 5,000 | New |
| Athletics Stadium | Hambantota | Athletics Rugby sevens | 40,000 | New |
| Exhibition Centre hall 1 | Hambantota | Badminton | 2,500 | New |
| Exhibition Centre hall 2 | Hambantota | Netball preliminaries | 2,500 | New |
| Exhibition Centre hall 3 | Hambantota | Weightlifting | 2,500 | New |
| Multi-Sport Complex - boxing arena | Hambantota | Boxing | 3,000 | New |
| Multi-Sport Complex - lawn bowls stadium | Hambantota | Lawn bowls | 2,500 | New |
| Multi-Sport Complex - squash arena | Hambantota | Squash | 3,000 | New |
| Multi-Sport Complex - table tennis arena | Hambantota | Table tennis | 3,000 | New |
| Multi-Sport Complex - wrestling arena | Hambantota | Wrestling | 2,500 | New |
| Velodrome | Hambantota | Track cycling | 4,000 | New |
| Main Arena | Hambantota | Gymnastics Netball finals | 5,000 | New |
| Hockey Stadium | Hambantota | Field hockey | 7,000 | New |
| Ranminithenna Shooting Range | Hambantota District | Shooting | 5,500 | New |
| Tissa Lake triathlon course | Tissamaharama | Road cycling Triathlon | 1,000 2,000+ | Temporary |
| Marathon course | Embilipitiya | Athletics (marathon start) | N/A | Temporary |

## Proposed schedule

Hambantota proposed hosting the games between May 16 and 27, 2018. 17 sports and 228 events were planned to be contested if the bid was successful.
| OC | Opening ceremony | ● | Event competitions | 1 | Event finals | CC | Closing ceremony |
| May | May | 16th Wed | 17th Thu | 18th Fri | 19th Sat | 20th Sun | 21st Mon | 22nd Tue | 23rd Wed | 24th Thu | 25th Fri | 26th Sat | 27th Sun | |
| Ceremonies | Ceremonies | OC | | | | | | | | | | | CC | |
| Archery | Archery | | | | ● | ● | ● | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | | | 8 |
| Athletics | Athletics | | | | | | 1 | 5 | 7 | 6 | 7 | 7 | 11 | 44 |
| Badminton | Badminton | | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | ● | ● | ● | ● | 3 | 2 | 6 |
| Boxing | Boxing | | | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | | 5 | 5 | 10 |
| Cycling | Cycling | | 3 | 3 | 3 | 3 | | | | 1 | 1 | 2 | | 16 |
| Diving | Diving | | | | | | | | 3 | 2 | 3 | 2 | | 10 |
| Gymnastics | Gymnastics | | 1 | 1 | 2 | | 5 | 5 | 1 | 1 | 4 | | | 20 |
| Field hockey | Field hockey | | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 1 | 2 |
| Lawn bowls | Lawn bowls | | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | ● | 2 | | | 6 |
| Netball | Netball | | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | | 1 | 1 |
| Rugby sevens | Rugby sevens | | | ● | 1 | | | | | | | | | 1 |
| Shooting | Shooting | | | 2 | 2 | 1 | 2 | 1 | 3 | 2 | 1 | 4 | | 18 |
| Squash | Squash | | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | ● | ● | ● | ● | 3 | 5 |
| Swimming | Swimming | | 5 | 4 | 8 | 4 | 10 | 7 | | | | | | 38 |
| Table tennis | Table tennis | | ● | ● | ● | ● | 2 | ● | ● | ● | 1 | 2 | 2 | 7 |
| Weightlifting | Weightlifting | | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 2 | 1 | | | | 15 |
| Wrestling | Wrestling | | | 3 | 4 | 4 | 3 | 3 | 4 | | | | | 21 |
| Total Gold Medals | Total Gold Medals | | 11 | 15 | 22 | 14 | 30 | 25 | 24 | 15 | 21 | 26 | 25 | 228 |
| May | May | 16th Wed | 17th Thu | 18th Fri | 19th Sat | 20th Sun | 21st Mon | 22nd Tue | 23rd Wed | 24th Thu | 25th Fri | 26th Sat | 27th Sun | T |