By Duncan Mackay

Glasgow One Year to Go AustraliaJuly 23 - Australia is confident of finishing top of the medals table for a record seventh consecutive time at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow next year, despite their worst Olympic performance for 20 years at London last year.


Australia has finished top overall of the medals table at every Commonwealth Games since Auckland 1990.

The last time they were not the leading nation was in 1986, the previous occasion that Scotland hosted the event, when they were held in Edinburgh.

Then they finished behind England and Canada.

Perry Crosswhite, chief executive of the Australian Commonwealth Games Association (ACGA), does not expect the same thing to happen in Glasgow.

"The overall standard of competition continues to get higher at each Games," he said at a special event in Melbourne to mark one year until the start of the Opening Ceremony in Glasgow.

"With so many Commonwealth nations producing world-class athletes, we recognise that it is going to be tough competition over in Glasgow next year.

"That is why the Australian Commonwealth Games Association has invested a record $8 million (£5 million/€5.5 million) in our programme sports to help them prepare their athletes for the strong challenge we expect to face.

"Australia is justifiably proud of our Commonwealth Games record and in Glasgow in 2014 we aim to write another chapter in that success story."

The 2014 Commonwealth Games - which is due to be held from July 23 to August 3 - will be the largest sporting event ever staged in Scotland with 6,500 athletes and officials from 71 nations and territories competing in 18 sports.

Overall, Australia has topped the medal tally in 12 of the 19 Commonwealth Games to date.

But Australia finished a long way behind Team GB at London 2012 as the host nation claimed a total of 65 medals, including 29 gold, to finish third overall as Australia slipped to tenth, winning 35 medals, only seven of them gold. 

The efforts of Britain, though, will be diluted at Glasgow where they will compete as seven different teams, England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales plus Guernsey, Isle of Man and Jersey.

Australia is currently looking at sending a team in excess of 600, including 425 athletes, to Glasgow 2014 which will be one of the largest Australian squads to compete overseas.

In New Delhi in 2010 Australia won a total of 177 medals, including 74 gold, with Sally Pearson being among the most prominent of those winners, claiming victory in the 100 metres hurdles.

Sally Pearson Delhi 2010Australia's Sally Pearson celebrates winning the gold medal in the 100 metres hurdles at the 2010 Commonwealth Games in New Delhi

"There is no doubt this is going to be a tough challenge and our athletes are going to have to be at the top of their game if we are to achieve our aim of retaining our number one status," said Steve Moneghetti, Chef de Mission of Australia's team.

"We know England in particular is looking to go one step better than their runner-up position on the medal tally in three of the last four Games and a host of other nations such as India, Canada and the Scots themselves will also be looking to make their mark.

"With only one year to go, the countdown to the Glasgow 2014 Commonwealth Games has definitely begun."

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