The Australian state of Victoria will host the 2026 Commonwealth Games, with most of the events expected to be held in regional centres.

The opening ceremony will be held in Melbourne at the MCG, but hubs with athletes’ villages will be set up in Geelong, Bendigo, Ballarat, and Gippsland.

Announcing the news, Victoria’s premier Daniel Andrews said: “This will be a Commonwealth Games like no other.

“We promised we wouldn’t be doing a re-run of 2006, as successful as that was.

“This is also about creating jobs – some nearly 4,000 jobs during the Commonwealth Games and some 3,000 enduring jobs thereafter.”

The president of the Commonwealth Games Federation Dame Louise Martin said: “Commonwealth Games Australia and the Victorian Government have set out a bold and innovative vision for hosting our major multi-sport event.

“In Victoria, we believe we have found the perfect partner for the next stage of our journey.”

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It will be the sixth time the Commonwealth Games has been held in Australia – Sydney hosted the event in 1938, Perth in 1962, Brisbane in 1982, Melbourne in 2006, and the Gold Coast in 2018.

So far, 16 sports have been confirmed, with more expected to be added later.

Those confirmed are aquatics, beach volleyball, gymnastics, hockey, table tennis, triathlon, athletics, boxing, lawn bowls, netball, squash, weightlifting, badminton, T20 cricket, road cycling, and rugby sevens.

In 2017, the South African city of Durban was stripped of the right to stage the 2022 Commonwealth Games due to financial issues.

Birmingham stepped in – although they had been scheduled to host the 2026 event, which meant a vacancy remained.

Kuala Lumpur, Cardiff, Calgary, Edmonton, and Adelaide were among the cities to withdraw from bids ahead of the decision to award the hosting role to Victoria.

This year’s Commonwealth Games in Birmingham begins on Thursday 28 July.

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