Gold Coast, Australia. Photo / File
The Gold Coast has won the right to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, beating Sri Lanka's Hambantota.
The Queensland city won their bid after a Saturday morning ballot at the general assembly at the Commonwealth Games Federation in the Caribbean nation of St Kitts and Nevis.
The 70 CGF delegates voted 43 to 27 in favour of the Coast.
Queensland's tourist strip will now become the fifth Australian city to host the Games after Sydney (1938), Perth (1962), Brisbane (1982) and Melbourne (2006).
Delighted Queensland premier Anna Bligh said she and the overjoyed bid team were extremely relieved after a week of intense lobbying.
"We've done a lot of hard work and it was very clear early in the week there was a lot of delegates who supported Hambantota and it would be a very, very close vote,'' Ms Bligh said at the assembly.
"The hard work has paid off.''
The vote was seen as a head versus heart call for delegates with Gold Coast deemed a low-risk bid city while the Sri Lankans asked for a "life-changing opportunity''.
Little-known Hambantota, which is rebuilding after being devastated by the 2004 Asian tsunami, had made a humble and dignified pitch to the CGF to help them in their massive regeneration program.
Record-breaking Test cricketer Muttiah Muralidaran was the headline act of the Hambantota bid team.
Muralidaran said hosting rights would transform his country like the 1995 Rugby World Cup changed and united post-apartheid South Africa under the leadership of Nelson Mandela.
- AAP
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