Australia has finished the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham at the top of the standings and 10 gold medals ahead of second-placed England.
The green and gold team won 67 gold, 57 silver and 54 bronze medals during the competition.
The Kookaburras beat India in the final of the men’s hockey to secure Australia’s last gold medal of the Games.
You can check out how theaction unfolded in our Commonwealth Games closing ceremony blog, or have a look at the medal winners and the top 10 medal standings by country below:
Final day medal winners:
Gold:
The Kookaburras beat India in the men’s hockey
Silver:
Jian Fang Lay and Minhyung Jee claimed silver in the table tennis
Shixin Li and Maddison Keeney, diving, mixed 3m synchronized springboard
Bronze:
Cassiel Rousseau and Emily Boyd, diving, mixed synchronized 10m platform
The closing ceremony of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games has officially begun after 11 days of history-making sporting moments.
It comes after the Kookaburras won their seventh consecutive Commonwealth Games gold in the men’s hockey final, beating India 7-0 to give Australia its 67th and final gold of the Games.
Follow the closing ceremony live, see our athletes’ personal reflections of the Games and share your top moments from Birmingham 2022 by hitting the blue “leave a comment” button below.
live updates
By Kelsie Iorio
Our athletes: Clay Mason Stephens
Clay’s unwaveringly positive attitude (and incredible cork hat) really stood out to me these Games.
He said after his all-around final that despite missing out on a medal, he “enjoyed (it) regardless of the result because I chose to do so.” Something we can all take with us!
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By Kelsie Iorio
The athletes enter Alexander Stadium
Diver and Birmingham gold medalist Melissa Wu carried the Australian flag for us—this is her fifth Commonwealth Games.
Lots of athletes on Team Australia and from other nations have already gone home, so the closing ceremony is a little more casual. But it looks like they’re having fun.
By Jon Healey
Kashmir?
Sooooo, we have some more industrial workers doing some ‘Look down, look down’ type pushing and pulling of a very big metal structure. Looks like some sort of Mount Midoriyama.
But they’re playing Kashmir by Led Zeppelin, so all I can think of is this scene from Ocean’s 12.
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Ohhhhhhhhh, it’s a worker shortage. They couldn’t lift it by themselves, and then a huge influx of immigrant families have arrived to help them lift the big horizontal metal thing into a big vertical metal thing.
It lights up with the word “TOGETHER”, pointing to Birmingham’s famed multicultural diaspora.
(Getty)
By Kelsie Iorio
Our athletes: Kaye Scott 🥈
Referees stopped the 38-year-old’s gold medal bout in the light middleweight boxing division, putting a quick end to her hopes for gold.
But her Birmingham silver is still one-up on her Gold Coast bronze since 2018, and as she says herself: “Silver isn’t too bad.”
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By Jon Healey
Come On Eileen kicks us off
After a recreation of Birmingham rebuilding and industrializing after World War II, Dexys Midnight Runners are out there doing their banger while dancers… work on an Amazon production line?
(Supplied: Seven Network)
Now they’re on the beers?! Lord Bezos won’t approve of that.
Rapidly, rapidly.(Getty)
By Kelsie Iorio
Our athletes: Tinka Easton 🥇
Tinka won Australia’s first gold medal in judo in two decades on her Commonwealth Games debut in Birmingham.
She says herself there are still big things coming — so it sounds like this won’t be the last we see of her.
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By Kelsie Iorio
Our athletes: Cedric Dubler 🥉
Cedric made headlines in Tokyo for his selfless drive that helped Ash Moloney to a bronze medal—well, this time, he’s got one of his own.
He stood alongside teammate and silver medalist Daniel Golubovic on the podium and says he’s “hungry for more”… or will, be after a nap. I’d be going for a lie-down after that too, mate.
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By Kelsie Iorio
Your thoughts on the Games:
Hey Jon 🙂 Hey Kelsie 🙂 I can’t recall a Comm games more awesome to watch than 2022.
-Natty
It’s been a good one, hey?
(Getty Images)
By Jon Healey
Our athletes: Emma McKeon 🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥇🥈🥉
What more can be said about this woman?
The swimming may feel like a lifetime ago, but six gold medals, one silver and one bronze in Birmingham is a pretty timeless achievement.
It adds to her haul from Glasgow 2014 and Gold Coast 2018, giving her TWENTY Commonwealth Games medals. The most of any athlete in history.
And let’s not forget she’s also Australia’s most decorated Olympian, with five golds and 11 medals overall. to freak.
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By Kelsie Iorio
Our athletes: Isabella Vincent
One of the babies of the Australian team and still in high school, Birmingham was Izzy’s first Commonwealth Games — but likely won’t be her last.
She says it’s been “an honor to rep the green and gold”and we hope to see this SA-based Para-swimmer again in Victoria in 2026!
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By Kelsie Iorio
Your thoughts on the Games:
Well donate all Australian athletes. I am so proud of you all. Each of you have given your all for our wonderful country.
-Lesley
We’re with you, Lesley!
Tell us your favorite moments of the games by hitting the blue comment button above ☝️
Getty Images
By Kelsie Iorio
One final look at the medal tally
It ended up pretty close — but Australia retains its place at the top of the tally with an incredible 67 gold, 57 silver and 54 bronze.
By Jon Healey
Key Event
🥈 Table tennis: Australia falls short in women’s doubles final
(AP)
Jian Fang Lay and Minhyung Jee were beaten 3-0 by Singapore pair Tianwei Feng and Jian Zeng.
Singapore started how they intended to go on, winning the first game 11-1. The last two were more contested, but both ended 11-8 in the favor of the Singaporeans.
Jee and Lay won bronze in the women’s team event last week as part of a six-medal haul for our table tennis team.
By Jon Healey
Key Event
🥈🥉 Diving: Silver and bronze in mixed events
(AP)
last night Shixin Li and Maddison Keeney picked up silver in the mixed 3m springboard synchronized event.
They finished just 1.98 points behind winners Scotland, as both Aussie divers picked up their third medals of this Games.
climbing higher, Cassiel Rousseau and Emily Boyd added bronze in the synchro off the tall tower.
It’s Boyd’s first medal in Birmingham, while Rousseau added to his 10m gold and men’s 10m synchro bronze.
(AP)
By Jon Healey
Key Event
🥇 Hockey: Kookaburras maintain Commonwealth dominance against India
(Getty)
SEVEN!
The Australian men’s hockey team have won Commonwealth Games gold seven straight times.
This time they did it with a thumping 7-0 win (how fitting) over India.
Jacob Anderson and Nathan Ephraums scored doubles, usual suspects Flynn Ogilvie and Blake Govers got on the board too, as well as Tom Wickham.
It’s Australia’s 67th and final gold medal in Birmingham.
By Jon Healey
It’s almost over, fam
Hello and welcome to this, our final blog of the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
We’ve got a couple of medals to wrap up before the closing ceremony, and we’ll also bring you some athletes’ reflections on the 2022 Games.
Leave a comment and have a chat with us using that button up there!
The Australian women’s cricket team now officially has it all.
The T20 and ODI World Cup winners are Commonwealth Games champions too after a nine-run win over India in front of a bumper crowd at Edgbaston.
When we talk about greatness in Australian team sports, surely now they must be counted amongst the very best we’ve ever seen.
“It was certainly a medal that we never thought we’d ever win, we never thought we’d be a part of a Commonwealth Games,” Australia all-rounder Ash Gardner said.
“We’ve won a lot of medals, but I think this one’s pretty special.”
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The Australians batted first and made 8-161, largely thanks to Beth Mooney’s 61 off 41 balls.
As she so often does, India captain Harmanpreet Kaur took control to put India in a dangerous position before Gardner dismissed her for 65.
“I thought they had control that chase for a long period of that batting innings of theirs,” Mooney said.
“But on the flip side, I thought that if we got a couple of wickets that we were in with a real shot of turning the screws and putting the squeeze on them, which is what happened.”
India needed 11 runs off the final over, with two wickets left.
But Jess Jonassen delivered the goods with the ball as the Australians claimed another major title.
A strange sideshow played out during the game.
On the morning of the match Australia all-rounder Tahlia McGrath tested positive to COVID-19, but she was still allowed to play.
Tahlia McGrath motions for her teammates to stay away after taking a catch. McGrath tested positive for COVID before the match started.(Getty Images: Ryan Pierce)
In bizarre scenes, McGrath had to socially distance from her teammates when she took a catch – never mind that they were all touching the same ball.
And all the COVID safe protocols were forgotten when she was swept up by her teammates in the festivities at the end of the match.
“It’d be pretty upsetting for someone like Tahlia who’s been in this team not being able to hug her teammates when we’ve won a gold medal,” Mooney said.
“So hopefully they turn a blind eye to that and forget that happened.”
Megan Schutt said the team felt bad for McGrath.
“It was so weird. We didn’t want to get in trouble,” Schutt told the Sydney Morning Herald.
“We felt bad for Tahlia at the end there.
“At the end, screw it. If we get COVID, so be it.”
Hockeyroos win silver after defeat to England
The Hockeyroos finished with silver in Birmingham, just like they did four years ago on the Gold Coast.(Getty Images: Mark Kolbe)
The Hockeyroos were outmuscled by England in the women’s hockey gold medal match at Edgbaston Hockey Club, with the home side deservedly winning 2-1.
The Hockeyroos lacked fluency and the killer instinct in the circle, while England was boosted by a buoyant home crowd to win gold for the first time.
But instead of slumping to the ground in tears, or comforting each other, for the most part, the Australians kept a smile on their face, patted each other on the back, and tried to appreciate what they’d managed to achieve.
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Several weeks after winning a bronze medal at the World Cup, the Hockeyroos wanted to make sure they celebrated winning silver.
Coach Katrina Powell — a two-time Olympic gold medalist — gathered all players and support staff in a huddle on the pitch, and passionately spoke to the team.
“[I told them] how proud I am of them and how we progressed while we’ve been away and how hard it is,” Powell said.
“Also [I gave them] a little reminder that you do win silver, hockey competitions are really interesting that [people think] you lose gold.
“We just won a bronze, so we saw how much happier we were than the silver medalists at the World Cup.
“And I think you miss out on that fun, that excitement, that experience, if you’re not happy with winning silver.”
That’s not to say the Hockeyroos are content with remaining second best.
Powell took over the team just before the Tokyo Olympics, where they were knocked out in the quarter finals.
It is a new look team on the pitch and behind the scenes.
Powell says everyone in the program is “rejuvenated and refocused” as they look towards the Paris 2024 Olympics.
“I think one of the things we’ve learned is that we’re not quite there yet,” she said.
“And that’s a really powerful thing going forward to know that you’re happy and okay with where you’re at, but certainly not satisfied.”
It is not something we have often seen at the Commonwealth Games, where they have won all six gold medals in the competition’s history.
But they almost missed the gold medal match, after an aggressive, inspired, and amped-up England side threatened to pull off an incredible upset.
The Kookaburras sailed through the pool stage, as they so often do, racking up big score lines and making big statements.
It was different against the Englishmen.
They smothered the world’s top-ranked team and stifled their flow.
They walked a fine line, and at times stepped over it too, receiving two yellow cards and a green card during the game.
“You play the Aussies, they come out hard, they look to throw punches, to knock you down, and kill the game,” England captain Zach Wallace said.
“The plan was to go out and throw punches back, and we did that. We got them running the other way. I just went at them, it was like a boxing match.”
If it went to a points decision, it might have gone in England’s favour, but the Kookaburras found a way to land the knockout blow, and come back from 2-0 down, to win 3-2.
Kookaburras grind to ‘ugly’ win
The hosts started with intent and looked especially dangerous on the counterattack.
Phil Roper put them ahead in the first quarter, then a penalty stroke in the second quarter saw Wallace give them a 2-0 lead.
“They play a bit different, a bit more of a marking team, so they definitely put us under pressure early,” Kookaburras midfielder Daniel Beale said.
“Ideally, we don’t like to go two goals down that early in the game. (But) we trust in this group to be able to come back from anywhere.”
And the comeback arrived, in a slow, measured grind, rather than in a blaze of glory.
The Australians said they always believed they could come back to win the match.(Getty Images: Tom Dulat)
“Things don’t go your way, you have to crawl your way out, fight a little bit, you probably need a bit of luck” co-captain Eddie Ockenden said.
“I didn’t question that we would be able to do it. It’s not like we got on a big run, we just had to edge our way through a bit of attrition.”
“They started the game very well, and we were certainly on the backfoot,” Kookaburras coach Colin Batch said.
“I think they got a lot of confidence from that situation, so it was a huge challenge just to get up to our level and it took a long time to get there.”
One of the Kookaburras’ most reliable sources for goals, Blake Govers, again delivered when needed from a penalty corner to make it 2-1 at half-time.
And Jacob Anderson’s tomahawk drew them level, but the winning goal was the most contentious.
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Anderson took a quick free hit to penetrate the circle, and Beale capitalized to score.
It was reviewed to see whether Anderson had stopped the ball dead before taking the hit, and the goal stood.
“Probably one of the most timely goals in my career, very glad to put that one in the net and for the referral to stand,” Beale said.
England raided the Kookaburras in the final minutes, even substituting their goalkeeper for an extra field player to try and force a shootout.
And while overall the Kookaburras weren’t at their best, they still produced what was required when needed.
There were crucial saves from goalkeeper Andrew Charter, Flynn Ogilvy alerted on the post to bat away an attempt off a penalty corner, Jeremy Hayward blocking a shot on goal at the death, and Ockenden an overall calming presence to take the sting out of England’s bite .
England captain Zach Wallace was distracted after losing the match.(Getty Images: Clive Brunskill)
The celebrations, or lack thereof, said a lot at the end of the match too.
As some England players slumped to the ground in despair, the Australians smiled, hugged, and high-fived, but there were no wild celebrations befitting a semi-final win.
“We didn’t play our best but you can win ugly as well and that’s a good sign for us,” said Govers.
The Kookaburras are accustomed to gold, and on the final day of the Games, they get a shot at it once again, when they face India in the decider.
Hockeyroos forward Rosie Malone suspects she’s public enemy number one in India right now, after the Hockeyroos penalty shootout win over India in the women’s hockey semi-finals at the Commonwealth Games.
Key points:
The Hockeyroos beat India 3-0 in a penalty shootout
Rosie Malone was allowed to retake her shot after the timer failed to start, having originally missed
Australia will take on England in the final after their shootout victory over New Zealand
Not that it bothers her.
Malone was the first penalty taker in the one on ones, after the teams finished at 1-1 at full time.
She was never in control of her attempt, and for the first time in her international career, she missed.
But there was an unexpected let-off when she was called back to re-take the shot, because the eight second countdown on the scoreboard hadn’t started.
“I was just thanking the universe for a second chance,” Malone said.
“I knew all of India would hate me if I put it in. But I was just trying to think about my team, and that final.
“I just said to myself, if I get a second chance, I’m not missing it.”
Malone’s successful do-over set the tone for the rest of the Australians, as they secured an easy 3-0 shootout win.
Rebecca Greiner had opened the scoring for the Hockeyroos before India hit back.(Getty: Robert Cianflone)
And it also characterized the difference between the revitalized 2022 Hockeyroos, and the 2021 outfit that dealt with a host of off-field issues, and lost to India in the Tokyo Olympics quarterfinals.
“We’ve done heaps of work over the last year, following from the Olympics, on just being able to shift our mindset, quickly accept what happened and move on to the next thing,” Malone said.
“I think that was just a great example of how far our group’s come with those things.”
The Hockeyroos’ positive headspace was clear to see before the match.
While waiting for the earlier semi-final to finish, the Australians gathered on the warm-up pitch and had a Bluetooth speaker pumping out tunes, with a few players even belting out Keep Bleeding by Leona Lewis in an impromptu karaoke session.
They remained upbeat in the first quarter when Rebecca Greiner put them ahead, and they had many more chances to push ahead — but India’s defense was impressive.
In the final quarter, India hit back through Vandana Katariya, as the Australians conceded for the first time in the tournament.
Ambrosia Malone scored a decisive penalty in the 3-0 shootout victory.(Getty Images: Robert Cianflone)
But Malone, Kaitlin Nobbs and Amy Lawton got the job done in the shootout.
The Hockeyroos will face England in the gold medal match, after the host nation also triumphed in a shootout, against New Zealand.
“It’s exactly what we came here for and to take on England, at their home Comm Games, with a home crowd,” goalkeeper Jocelyn Bartram said.
“Hockey is not the biggest sport in the world so to be able to play in front of a crowd that’s going to be up and about is going to be an excellent experience in itself.”
Malone is also excited about trying to get back on top of the podium, after a silver medal at Gold Coast 2018.
“I don’t even care if England’s all against us, it’s just so cool to have an atmosphere,” she said.
“And for our team to get the gold, I think it would just really represent how far we’ve come and all the hard work we’ve been doing.”
