As the Australian media’s green and gold
whitewash charges confidently over the finish line, it’s
worth taking a brief peek over the fence for a random sample of what our
non-Australian friends have been saying about the Friendly Games:

• The Hindustan Times is running big with
  news that
  Indian shooter Samresh Jung has been named the Best Athlete of the Games. Jung
  won five gold, one silver and one bronze, a feat Indian Chef de Mission H. J.
  Dora accurately described as “a rare honour” but which The Australian sourly
  reports as a “failure”.

• The Scotsman is awash with pride at Scotland’s
  record haul of medals.
  Aiming for 15 medals, the Scots amazed themselves by taking home 29. “The
  success of Scotland has been one of the stories of the Games,” writes Richard Moore.
  “Only in Australia has the story been virtually ignored. Six words sum up the
  Australian media’s coverage: ‘Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi.’”

• “Anyone glued to the television coverage
  from Melbourne will have been reminded there is much more to New Zealand sport
  than rugby, league, netball and cricket,” writes Tony Smith in Fairfax NZ’s
  Stuff website. He’s
  writing about Kiwi Nick Willis’ win in the 1500m race yesterday, but most
  Australian media reported the race as the fall of Craig Mottram.

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• Pacific magazine is reporting the
  extraordinary story of the Cook Islander weightlifter who lifted a personal
  best to beat his own father. 17-year-old Sam Pera Jnr lifted a total of 293kg
  to edge out his father, Cook Islands sporting legend Sam Pera, into ninth place at what is likely to be
  the elder’s last major competition. “Mum said she’d prefer me to win,” Pera Jnr
  said.

• Finally, our US
  friends appear a little confused:While The New York Times seems to have ignored the Games completely, The Washington Post has been taking stories
  from the wires, including this one about Asafa Powell’s lazy 100m win, but is running them under the banner “Turin
  2006”. You can’t win ‘em all.