Title: 2006 Commonwealth Games Content: The 2006 Commonwealth Games were held in Melbourne, Australia between 15 and 26 March 2006. It was the largest sporting event to be staged in Melbourne, since the 1956 Summer Olympics. The site for the opening and closing ceremonies was the Melbourne Cricket Ground which was also used during Melbourne's 1956 Olympic Games. The mascot for the games was Karak, a Red- tailed Black Cockatoo. == Sports == The 2006 Commonwealth Games included 16 sports, with 12 individual sports and 4 team sports. In total there are 247 events at the Games. Four of these sports are further broken down into separate disciplines, making a total of 24 disciplines: * Aquatics: diving, swimming, synchronised swimming. * Cycling: track, road, mountain bike. * Gymnastics: artistic, rhythmic. * Shooting: clay target, pistol, small bore and air rifle, full bore rifle. == Medals table ==  == Calendar == |- |bgcolor=#00cc33| ● ||Opening ceremony|| bgcolor=#3399ff| ● ||Event competitions || bgcolor=#ffcc00| ● ||Event finals||bgcolor=#ee3333| ● ||Closing ceremony |- |- ! March !! 15th ! 16th ! 17th ! 18th ! 19th ! 20th ! 21st ! 22nd ! 23rd ! 24th ! 25th ! 26th |- | Ceremonies || bgcolor="#00cc33" align="center" | ● || || || || || || || || || || || bgcolor="#ee3333" align="center" | ● |- | Athletics || || || || || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || |- | Badminton || || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●●●●● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●●●●●|| bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●●●●● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●●●●● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ●●●●● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ●●●●● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ●●●●● |- | Basketball || || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#3399ff" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ●● || bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● || || |- | Boxing || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●|| |- | Cycling|| ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●|| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●|| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●|| ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|● |- | Diving || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|● |- | Gymnastics || ||bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ● ||bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ●||bgcolor="#ffcc00" align="center" | ●● || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●●●●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●●●●|| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●|| bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●●● |- | Hockey || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || || || |- | Lawn Bowls || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●●|| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || |- | Netball || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || || || |- | Rugby Sevens || || bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || || || || || |- | Shooting || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || || || |- | Squash || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || ||bgcolor=#3399ff align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| |- | Swimming || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|● || bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|● || bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|● || bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|● ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || || |- | Synchronised Swimming || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || |- | Table tennis || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|● || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || |- | Triathlon || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || |- | Weightlifting || || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || ||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●||bgcolor=#ffcc00 align=center|●|| || || || |- ! March !! 15th ! 16th ! 17th ! 18th ! 19th ! 20th ! 21st ! 22nd ! 23rd ! 24th ! 25th ! 26th == Venues == The following venues were used at the 2006 Commonwealth Games. The sport(s) which were played at that venue is listed after it. === Melbourne venues === * Docklands Precinct: Walks * Melbourne Cricket Ground: Opening and Closing Ceremonies, and Athletics * Melbourne Exhibition Centre: Badminton, Boxing and Weightlifting * Melbourne Gun Club: Clay Target Shooting * Melbourne International Shooting Club: Small Bore and Pistol Shooting * Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre: Aquatics, Squash and Table tennis * Multi Purpose Venue (Melbourne Park): Basketball Finals, Track Cycling and Netball Finals * Rod Laver Arena (Melbourne Park): Gymnastics * Royal Botanic Gardens Circuit: Cycling Road Race events * State Lawn Bowls Centre: Lawn Bowls * State Netball Hockey Centre: Netball and Hockey * St Kilda Foreshore and Beach Road: Triathlon and Cycling Time Trial * Telstra Dome: Rugby 7s === Other venues === ; Ballarat: Ballarat Minerdome: Basketball ; Bendigo: Bendigo Stadium: Basketball Wellsford Rifle Range: Full Bore Shooting ; Geelong: Geelong Arena: Basketball ; Lysterfield Park: State Mountain Bike Course: Mountain Bike Cycling ; Traralgon: Traralgon Sports Stadium: Basketball == Other Notees == Melbourne's public transport system (Metlink) - train, tram and bus - had changed timetables for the Games.