In an extraordinary spray, livid hosts Johanna Griggs and Basil Zempilas savaged the spectacle, saying they were outraged the athletes entry to the stadium was not part of the show.

READ: TRANSCRIPT OF CHANNEL 7 HOSTS’ SPRAY ON AIR

Australia’s team, lead by inspirational para-sports legend Kurt Fearnley, barely got a look-in during the ceremony, which featured a medley of songs by mid-level Aussie artists.

Thousands of spectators and even athletes left Carrara Stadium early and a ‘furious’ Griggs, apologised.

“I’m furious. Actually, wrecking a tradition that is so important,’’ Griggs said.

“You want to see the athletes come in. You want to see them jumping in front of camera.”

“The organising committee together with the host broadcasters just didn’t get it right. It was a mistake.

“We missed out on that, I tell you, they’ve been repaid, there are no athletes in here and I’ve never seen the stadium so empty.”

Ten years since they were first floated and 12 days after they began, the Gold Coast Games reached the finish line in a closing ceremony starring the likes of Guy Sebastian, Dami Im, The Veronicas, Amy Shark and Yothu Yindi.

It followed a dramatic and emotional last day of competition in which retiring para-sports legend Fearnley won his last wheelchair marathon, England sensationally pipped Australia for netball gold and organisers had to defend long delays in getting help for Scottish marathoner Callum Hawkins after his sickening collapse near the finish line.

Australia easily topped the medal tally, bagging 198 medals (including 80 golds) in its second-best Commonwealth Games performance after the 2006 Melbourne Games where it won 222 medals.

After a sellout opening ceremony, thousands of empty seats were a disappointing sight at last night’s closing ceremony which saw cameo appearances by a dancing retired track superstar Usain Bolt and Games cult figure Borobi.

Volunteers were even on standby to help fill empty seats at Carrara Stadium and Aussie athletes left the ceremony early and hit the bar. Youth performers fittingly took centre stage as the Coast and Queensland looked to a bold new future in the wake of the state’s biggest-ever event.

They included 12-year-old Gold Coast schoolboy Max Deffenti who opened the show, teenage slam poet Solli Raphael and young dancers the Brat Pack Tappers.

ARIA-award winning homegrown Gold Coast star Shark teamed up with indigenous music great Archie Roach for the ceremony’s musical opener, Let Love Rule, backed by the two youth choirs and disabled performers from the Restless Dance Theatre.

The Coast’s ‘everyday heroes’, from lifeguards to firefighters, were honoured on stage in a musical tribute performed by Ricki-Lee Coulter, who also starred in the opening ceremony, and Anthony Callea along with the Brat Pack.

Barber shop singers The Blenders along with Yothu Yindi, who performed their biggest hit Treaty, also sang the praises of the ‘everyday heroes’ who helped make the Games a success.

The 15,500 Games volunteers, dubbed ‘Games shapers’ were also honoured, bathing in the well-deserved spotlight as Guy Sebastian performed.

“A beautiful bunch of people have put their hearts and souls into making these Games amazing,” Sebastian said.

Bolt, who partied all week at notorious Surfers Paradise club Sin City, danced in front of a DJ deck. Borobi, a glaring omission from the opening ceremony, bopped on stage beside Bolt.

Games chairman Peter Beattie told the crowd the Games had made ‘beautiful history’ as the first to have equal medals for men and women, an inclusive para-sports program and an ndigenous Reconciliation Action Plan.

Premier Annastacia Palaszczuk, who was snubbed for a speaking role at the opening ceremony, said the Games may be ending ‘but what we have seen is the beginning of Queensland’s golden age’.

“What can we say, except how good was that?” she said. “Nothing can stop us now.”

Ms Martin, the Commonwealth Games Federation president, had earlier said the stunning success of the Coast Games showed an Olympics was ‘definitely doable’ for Queensland. “What has been shown here has proved that nothing is impossible,” she said.

Last night, Ms Martin said nine world and 91 Commonwealth Games records had been broken, and five Commonwealth nations had won their first medals, at the Coast Games.

“What a Games these have been,” she said.

“Gold Coast, you have delivered a sporting and cultural spectacle that the entire Commonwealth can be proud of.”

Birmingham also had a starring role in the closing ceremony, with performances inside the stadium by the likes of Brit rapper Lady Sanity flashing to Victoria Square in Birmingham for a live performance by the Birmingham Royal Ballet and People’s Orchestra.

Birmingham officials had earlier admitted the Gold Coast would be a hard act to follow.

“You have set an incredibly high hurdle for us to clear,” West Midlands Mayor Andy Street said.

Female performers had the longest time in the spotlight last night in a nod to the focus on equality at the Gold Coast Games — the first to feature equal numbers of medals for women and men. As well as Shark’s solo, pop veteran Kate Ceberano joined The Veronicas, Dami Im, Samantha Jade, Thandi Phoenix, Kira Puru and Emma Donovan in a 45-minute segment dubbed ‘Sisters’.

Ceremonies musical director Katie Noonan, accused by critics of injecting herself into opening ceremony, had an encore performance in the celebration of female Aussie music icons from Olivia Newton-John to the The Divinyls’ Chrissie Amphlett.

Deborah Conway was due to perform her hit It’s Only The Beginning but pulled out sick, leaving Ceberano to sing the number.

Commonwealth Games Minister Kate Jones said: “We expected the athletes would be the focus as is the tradition at closing ceremonies.”

A senior government source said Mr Beattie had ‘a lot of explaining to do’.

It is understoodr his speech ran well over the allotted time.

Mr Beattie also leads the GOLC subcommittee for the ceremonies and signed off on the spectacle, sources said.

Games Minister Kate Jones said she shared the disappointment of the public that a celebration of the athletes was not at the forefront of the ceremony.

“I share the feeling of Australia,” she said. “It should have been a celebration of the athletes.”

​Channel Seven co-host Zempilas also attacked the speeches at the event as self-indulgent and suggested they drove the athletes away.

“To be brutally honest, most of the athletes left during the ceremony.

“The speeches were way too long and, dare I say it, a little self indulgent.”