By Ian Gordon, PA Sport

England's gold medal heroes have launched a crusade to save the athletics track at the City of Manchester Stadium after they brought their Commonwealth Games to a glorious climax.

The team struck gold six times last night but then queued up to decry the decision to rip up the track to make way for extra stands before new tenants Manchester City move into the magnificent £110million venue.

"It is very sad that they are not going to keep the track," said Birchfield's Ashia Hansen, who had to break her Games record three times to retain her triple jump crown.

"If you ask each and every one of the athletes they will say the same thing.

"Look at Europe. They have got a track and football pitches. I don't see why we could not have the same, it is very unfortunate."

Chris Rawlinson backed up Hansen after adding to his gold in the 400m hurdles by playing his part in a 4x400m relay that will go down as one of the best ever seen in Britain.

"I don't get or understand the mentality of ripping up the track," he said.

"I bet the people of Manchester would support athletics. Why can't we have a track and pitch like they have in Munich and Rome?"

Coventry's Marlon Devonish said after collecting gold in the sprint relay: "I am gutted they are ripping up the track. The people here have seen us perform so well and they would turn out in future."

Jonathan Edwards and Paula Radcliffe both voiced similar criticisms after their victories earlier in the Games.

And though the super-fast track will be used elsewhere, Britain - which had the 2005 World Championships taken away because there was no suitable venue - will be losing an arena that could have staged major athletics championships.

The 38,000 crowd which packed into the stadium every night had already witnessed probably the greatest athletics meeting ever staged in this country even before the gold-medal feast they were presented with last night.

Hansen was staring defeat in the face after she had dominated the triple jump competition but, with a cuddly tiger as her marker, she roared down the runway one final time to retain her title.

Kelly Holmes regained her Commonwealth 1500m crown and before long England were celebrating double middle-distance success, with Portsmouth's Michael East upsetting the Kenyan favourite in the men's race.

Steve Backley also recaptured his javelin title to complete the Commonwealth hat-trick but it was the two men's relays that will linger the longest in the memories.

England's sprint quartet and their Jamaican rivals could not be split by the clock, with an extra-puff of Darren Campbell's Manchester-born chest giving them the gold.

The clash of the English and Welsh men's 4x400m relay quartets in the final event was almost rugby-like in its intensity.

Day-glo haired Matt Elias thought his astonishing anchor leg had been enough to give Wales their only gold in athletics but Birchfield's Daniel Caines just hung on by 0.01secs.

Elias had to be consoled by team-mate Jamie Baulch but by the end he was joining in the fun as the night ended with an impromptu parade of athletes and volunteers.

The six golds in three hours of pulsating action took England's overall tally to 12 to beat their total from the last games in Malaysia by two.

And, with five other medals won last night, they overhauled Australia to top the medal table, though their finally tally of 29 was four fewer than Kuala Lumpur.