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Enduring images from the 16th Commonwealth Games
The doc started twisting the point around, Strange's eyes closed, his lip quivered. His hand fixed, Strange went out and won a gold medal for his country, the second in four years.
The agony of triumph.
The same hand later carried the flag for Canada at the closing ceremonies.
There were many images from these 16th Commonwealth Games, some good, some bad, some that defined the Canadian team and others that told the story of the host country.
First the memorable Canadians:
--The opening ceremonies: The Canadians march in, toss their Frisbees around the stadium and at Prince Edward (though not on purpose), which offended representatives from the Canadian government who were present.
--The good: Tiny 13-year-old diver Alexandre Despatie (who doesn't look as old as he is) is hoisted aloft by muscular diving giant Tony Ali of England after winning a gold medal on the 10-metre platform.
--The bad: Jonathon Power, the John McEnroe of squash, who spends the majority of his time tossing and kicking his racket, arguing with the referee and rolling his eyes (which makes for a great show), loses the gold medal match to a Scot he's beaten six consecutive times.
--The ugly: Field hockey players think they're playing for NHL contracts. They knock over an opponent having a post-game prayer, they tussle with fans, they damage a door and signs and offend the host nation and its king, who happens to be watching, after losing to Malaysia in a quarter-final.
--The pool: Joanne Malar stands on the top rung of the podium as her swimming career moves back into the fast lane.
--The court: The halftime show at netball, where the Canadian team is losing by three touchdowns, is marching band music.
And while the Canadians made headlines here for good and bad reasons, Malaysia succesfully ran the first Games to be hosted by an Asian country. Kuala Lumpur had some memorable images, and some contrasts that defined the 10 days of competition.
--The opening ceremonies: Malaysia throws a lavish celebration to emphasize its goal of joining First World nations by the year 2020, but a few metres from the mega-million dollar national sports complex people live in shanty houses without electricity or front doors.
--The boss: Prime Minister Mahathir Mohamad is everywhere during the Games. He asks a Canadian reporter if he has been reporting about the "no haze" conditions in Malaysia.
"When does he find time to do his job," the reporter asks a volunteer.
"This is his job," she answers.
--The end of the beginning: The Games go as planned with no major disasters, but military personnel are positioned near the stadium, armed with automatic weapons, to quash any uprising. (Political riots stain the last two days of the Games, but don't interfere.)
The tears: The closing goes as planned, the Queen waves to her subjects, but 15,000 of 16,000 volunteers who were promised free seats are left outside the stadium. Most of them stood in line for hours, and the tears start streaming down their cheeks.