Growing fears over India Commonwealth Games
Beleaguered Commonwealth Games organisers in India face more collapsing infrastructure and threatened pullouts. Alex Thomson argues the Games might “quite possibly, not happen at all”.
The Scottish team had already announced that it was delaying the departure of its first 41 squad members, citing ongoing health and security fears over conditions in the athletes’ village.
Now the Welsh have raised the stakes, initially giving the Delhi organising committee until five o’clock British time this afternoon to provide reassurances – but now extending the deadline until tomorrow to decide whether they will attend.
English officials have said the situation is “on a knife-edge”.
The Commonwealth Games England chairman Sir Andrew Foster told Channel 4 News that his organisation was “monitoring the situation day by day”.
There were “serious things which must improve” over the next few days if the England team was to take part, he warned. Some athletes were “frightened and apprehensive”.
There have been dogs roaming around the village, the apartments are filthy, there are piles of rubble and right now it’s not fit to receive 6,500 athletes and officials, which is what is due to happen in seven days. Michael Cavanagh, Commonwealth Games Scotland
“There is a long litany of things that are not right and do not make good accommodation for anybody,” he added.
The collapse of the ceiling in the weight lifting arena in Delhi was yet another blow to India’s efforts to complete its preparations ahead of the opening ceremony in 11 days’ time.
Five people remain seriously injured in hospital after a pedestrian bridge collapsed on Tuesday, injuring 23, and – as if all that was not enough – a dengue fever outbreak threatens to further overshadow the competition.
Michael Cavanagh, chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland told the media on Wednesday: “Part of the village which we’ve been moved to, which was the latest part to be finished in a real hurry, is in a very poor condition and a poor state of maintenance.
“There have been dogs roaming around the village, the apartments are filthy, there are piles of rubble and right now it’s not fit to receive 6,500 athletes and officials, which is what is due to happen in seven days.”
Cavanagh said Scotland was committed to the Games and he was hopeful the squad would still take part.
Real questions to answer
This looks extremely serious now, writes chief correspondent Alex Thomson.
True, there could be a degree of over-caution. True, the west is perhaps over sensitive to "elf and safety" and all the rest of it.
But when you put all the above against a background of violent attacks on westerners in India, in Mumbai and more recently - yes, in Delhi itself, you do have real questions to answer.
High profile pullouts
Australia’s foreign minister Kevin Rudd, has urged anyone travelling to Delhi for the Games to heed “high risk” travel warnings.
Australian discus champion Dani Samuels has already withdrawn on the grounds of security and health. And three English athletes have also decided to forfeit the competition.
On Tuesday 31-year-old triple jumper Phillips Idowu used his Twitter account to announce: “Sorry people, but I have children to think about. My safety is more important to them than a medal.’
English runners Christine Ohuruogu and Lisa Dobriskey, have also announced that they are withdrawing from the Games, citing injuries.
The athlete’s village is not adequately ready and there are questions about sanitation. The general area is full of sludge, rubble and water due to monsoon rains, and we are worried about mosquito-related dengue fever.
Tubby Reddy, South African team
The event is also being overshadowed by the biannual World Championships and lucrative grand prix events. Among those absent are heptathlon star Jessica Ennis, cycling legends Chris Hoy and Victoria Pendleton and gymnastics supremo Beth Tweddle.
Other leading athletes, such as Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt, had already decided not to attend the Games because it clashed with their training schedules.
The countdown
Now, with the Games less that two weeks away, an outbreak of the deadly Dengue fever has also caused alarm.
South Africa’s sports chief Tubby Reddy, head of the South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee, said he was now awaiting the full verdict of his fact-finding team before his organisation would make its own recommendations on whether to travel, although a final decision would be left to the South African government.
He told the media: “The athlete’s village is not adequately ready and there are questions about sanitation. The general area is full of sludge, rubble and water due to monsoon rains, and we are worried about mosquito-related dengue fever.”
That has become the problem for the Commonwealth Games. You tried to climb a mountain; you couldn’t even climb a hill. Indian sports journalist Novy Kapadia
Indian sports journalist Novy Kapadia told Channel 4 News that the games oragnisers had tried to do too much.
“The new world order got very greedy and ambitious,” he said.
“This competing with China, trying to redo the centre of Delhi.
“We needed to concentrate o the sports stadiums and the roads around the sports stadiums.
“There was no need to get over ambitious and then not finish anything.
“That has become the problem for the Commonwealth Games. You tried to climb a mountain; you couldn’t even climb a hill.”
Dengue fever
More than 30 new cases of dengue fever have been reported in New Delhi in just 24 hours according to the chief medical officer for the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD).
The total number of people affected by the disease this year is now 844, according to MCD figures.
This week odds on the games being scrapped were cut to 4-1. Even the Queen, who has stoically attended every Commonwealth Games of her reign bar Jamaica in 1966, is set to miss Delhi.
But Commonwealth Games England chairman Sir Andrew Foster remains hopeful: ”There still is a serious chance, if the Indian government and the organising committee throw thousands of people at the village – which is what they quite often do in India – that this could still be salvageable.”
