It is slightly difficult to be objective when writing about the Gold Coast.

The place is the very definition of sun, sea and sand and despite the fact that it is supposedly winter here, the beach is full every day, the majority of people walk around in bathing costumes and I have not yet seen a cloud in the sky.

But perhaps most importantly of all, the city does not appear to have put a foot wrong in their critical four-day inspection from the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) Evaluation Commission as they step up their bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

And with the vote for the event on November 11 this year in St Kitts and Nevis moving ever closer, the Gold Coast has certainly thrown down the gauntlet to their only rivals, Hambantota of Sri Lanka.

Hambantota are soon set for their own four-day inspection of their credentials to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, with formal evaluation proceedings in Sri Lanka set to get underway next Monday (June 27).

But they will undoubtedly have had at least half-an-eye on the inspection of the Gold Coast and must now be slightly unnerved after Scotland's Louise Martin, the chair of the five-person Commission made a rather telling closing statement at the press conference, which marked the conclusion of the official inspection of the Australian city.

"Having been here and experienced four glorious days, we understand why the Gold Coast is one of Australia's tourist capitals," said Martin.

"Overall, we can tell you that the proposition of staging the Commonwealth Games in the Gold Coast is an exciting one and appears, based on our initial analysis, to be sound.

"Not only does it appear that the basic infrastructure requirements can be met, it also seems that in meeting these Games requirements important legacies can be generated for the city and region."


The theme of the closing press conference continued in this manner with Martin, who was joined on the top table by fellow 2018 Commission member and CGF chief executive Mike Hooper, failing to pick any notable flaw in the Gold Coast 2018 bid.

For what it is worth, I too fail to see any obvious problems.

After the well-documented problems with the Delhi 2010 Commonwealth Games, with high-profile athlete boycotts, major delays in the construction of venues and fears over health and safety at venues, the Gold Coast looks to offer the CGF a much needed safe option in 2018.

When it comes to the Gold Coast, a lot of the venues are already in place or need only minor overlay before 2018 to reach competition.

A lot of the infrastructure is also in place - there is a hotel on pretty much every street corner - and, as far athlete boycotts go, very few competitors would be foolish enough to turn down a trip to the Gold Coast.

The weather is almost always perfect, the never-ending beach is a two-minute walk from anywhere, the people are ridiculously friendly and it doesn't appear that filling up stadiums will be a major problem.

"We are a little sport crazy in Australia," Mark Peters, the chief executive of the Gold Coast 2018 bid, explained to me.

"If there was a game of marbles going on, over 10,000 people would go to watch it as long as two countries were playing against each other.

"Australians are sport mad, the Commonwealth Games is a major event for Australians and you can be sure that whatever event, they will turn up in their droves."

The only problem with the Gold Coast is that I fail to see how people get any work done.

I write this on the balcony of my hotel room overlooking the most stunning of beaches and I admit I am finding it difficult to maintain concentration, while watching a game of beach volleyball going ahead!

The surfer-look is the accepted dress-code in the Gold Coast and the times that I walked in to press conferences dressed in a suit were the times I have never felt so out of place in my life.

What made up for that small embarrassment though was an amazing helicopter ride over the city.

I still haven't quite got over it and from the air there is no vocabulary to do the view of the Gold Coast any real justice.


I feel I am having far too much fun here and this is the one time I was disappointed to hear that the recent ash-cloud from a Chilean volcano, which has been halting flights across the region, has now cleared.

There are far worse places to be stranded than the Gold Coast.

The next stop for me, as I follow the Commission in their work, is Sri Lanka and I feel that will be the most intriguing of trips.

Unlike the Gold Coast, Hambantota does not really exist at present.

Their plan is almost to construct an entire city, with a central theme of sport, from scratch for the 2018 Commonwealth Games.

They have well-advanced plans to do this and it is something that will be done regardless of whether they win the bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games as they will host the prestigious South Asian Games in 2016.

In fact, on paper, Hambantota will be ready to host the Games a year before the Gold Coast with the Australian city aiming to complete final preparations for a potential 2018 Games in 2017.

But it is still a tough task for them, even with a number of high profile big-hitters, not least Hambantota 2018 co-chairman and Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka Ajith Nivard Cabraal, fully behind the plans.

The Mahinda Rajapaksa International Cricket Stadium, which opened in February 2011 and staged two matches during the ICC 2011 World Cup, is the only proposed 2018 Commonwealth Games venue to have been built so far in Hambantota where it is scheduled to host the Opening and Closing Ceremonies and the archery if the bid is successful.

The lack of existing facilities in Hambantota is actually the reason why the Commission will be based in Colombo, Sri Lanka's largest city, for the majority of their stay in the country with only a one-day visit to Hambantota.

A lot of the visit in the Gold Coast was made up of boardroom presentations, which hypothetically could have been done in Sydney, Melbourne or in fact any other city with electricity on the globe.

But this is a fact that has not gone unnoticed in Australia with the term "virtual bid" being levelled at Hambantota in the Gold Coast press as they look to highlight the fact that their Sri Lankan rivals have very few tangible 2018 Commonwealth Games venues to show the Commission.

But it would be very foolish to write Hambantota off.

It is 71 Commonwealth countries who will determine the winner of the 2018 bid and you can be certain that, if nothing else, Sri Lanka will put on one hell of a show for the Commission.

The Commission themselves face an interesting task of writing a report on two such contrasting cities. They will release that crucial report on the two bid cities in September this year and their take on two bids will be fascinating.

Will Hambantota 2018 be too big a risk after Delhi 2010?

Will the Commonwealth countries want to take the Games to a new country rather than Australia for the fifth time?

So we head to Sri Lanka with perhaps more questions than answers but very much in the knowledge that the Gold Coast has set an intimidatingly high bar for Hambantota to match.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames