After weeks of excitement at various venues, of wins for personal glory and national pride, of an exhibition of sports and sportsmanship, curtains finally came down on the Commonwealth Games 2006.

It was now time to party and Melbourne did it in style. India too was invited and it donned its most glamorous face, the face of Bollywood, for the party, at which it had 11 minutes all to itself, to wow the spectators.

These ‘ambassadors were also on a very special mission ,to invite Melbourne and representatives of all other commonwealth countries to the next Commonwealth Games extravaganza, at which India will play host in 2010-four years hence. None other than actress Aishwarya Rai, considered one of the most beautiful women in th

Australia destroyed Pakistan 3-0 in the men's hockey final to complete the grand hockey double at 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne on Sunday. Just yesterday, Australia had grabbed the solitary goal to edge India 1-0 in the women's final.

After year's of disappointment, Australia now hold a rare triple crown in hockey, being the reigning Olympic and Champions Trophy winners as well.

In a sadly one-sided contest Pakistan were comprehensively beaten, as the former Olympic champions failed to earn even a single penalty corner in the match. Incidentally Australia put themselves on the scoresheet in the 18th minute through their first penalty corner. After dragging the ball in, Liam de Young received the ball

Sharath Kamal completed a golden double for himself by beating Australia's William Henzel in the men's singles table tennis final to clinch the 22nd Gold Medal for India at the Commonwealth Games 2006.

The 23-year-old, 155th ranked Indian is the current Commonwealth Championships title holder and was the favourite, while the 203rd ranked Australian was the clear underdog. Sharath who had played a stellar role in helping India win the team gold, overcame a tense period in the middle of the final, to win a match that went the full 7 games - 11-5, 8-11, 5-11, 11-8, 7-11, 11-8 in a little over 35 minutes.

The Match

Sharath was expected to have a smooth win over Henzel, who'd recently walked out of a contract with his Swedish club to be able to play the Commonwealth Games for Australia, but it was not to be.

Sharath opened the Finals confidently an

India's ace shooter Samaresh Jung was appropriately rewarded for a fantastic performance at the Commonwealth Games with the highest honour possible, when he was bestowed with the David Dixon Award for the most outstanding athlete of the Games on Sunday.

The 36-year-old Indian began the games with a silver and went on to win five gold medals and a bronze from eight events, becoming the highest medal winning Indian in the history of Commonwealth Games. His amazing run ended with a weapon malfunction as he went medal-less in his final event, the 25m standard pistol.

Jung won two individual gold medals in the 10m and 50m air pistol events, besides a bronze in 25m centre fire pistol. He also won three gold and one silver in the pairs events. The only athletes to ever win 6 gold medals at a Commonwealth Games are Australian swimmers Susie O'Neill (1998) and Ian Thorpe (2002).