Commonwealth Games 2010 - New Delhi

[jaydeep]

But England general team manager Ann Hogbin dismissed the reports from The Daily Telegraph, saying the authorities have not advised them against travelling to India ...

"That is definitely not the case. Our current and strong intention is to field a team for the games in Delhi next year," Hogbin told Associated Press.

No pull out, say England C'wealth Games officials

[usaindian]

are we playing football in this games

[jayakris]

As we don't have an South Asian Games thread, I would post this item here ... I guess as a reminder to the kind of goofup that should never happen at the CWG ... Bhandari retains marathon gold despite faux pas

The 11th South Asian Games was disgraced with one of the biggest faux pas committed during the conduct of the marathon on Tuesday, the final day of the 12-day Games here ... Taking things for granted, the event was started on time from the National Stadium with much fanfare without knowing there was something amiss ... When the ultimate winner from Nepal, Rajendra Bahadur Bhandari, kicked to the finish line near the Army Headquarters, the clock showed the winning time as one hour, 59 minutes and some seconds, a world record time ... It was then that the technical officials realised that something was wrong and a quick calculation showed the course was at least 7 km short, if not more. Meanwhile, the medal ceremony was conducted despite a protest lodged by Sri Lanka ... According to one of the technical officials from India, who is here on an Asian Athletic Federation assignment, it was decided to withhold the timing and allow the result to stand ... This meant Bhandari got the gold medal for Nepal, Sri Lanka’s Ajith Bandara Adikari the silver and India’s Ram Singh the bronze.

How do you screw up on the length of the marathon course?? ... So funny that it had to happen on the traditional last event, that too! ..

What is even more puzzling is that none of the participants noticed the snafu beforehand. I mean, don't they at least look at the course they are supposed to run? Don't they have the experience to figure out that things were badly off? .. Mind boggles, really!

Jay

[arjun2761]

Hey, this was the South Asian games! Not one of these countries are known for training, planning, strategizing, or practising. It is all about showing up and playing (or running in this case) and what is a few kilometers in a 42 kilometer race

[mugu]

What is even more puzzling is that none of the participants noticed the snafu beforehand. I mean, don't they at least look at the course they are supposed to run? Don't they have the experience to figure out that things were badly off? .. Mind boggles, really!
Jay

When I read Jay's post, I was almost certain, none would have realised that the course was short even if they had made a reccee the previous day/s (which often is the case; Not really run or jog the course, but just to go around, walk a bit, run a bit and the rest in a vehicle.) I was completely wrong! I made enquiries and found that not only did athletes/coaches/officials go on the route the previous day/s they were also certain the course was short! And almost everyone connected with the marathon event knew that there would be a world record even before the race had started! Scandalous of course, but no one bothered to re-measure the course before the event started, not even the technical delegate (Sri Lankan). Eventually, it was the Sri Lankan team that protested that their man was robbed since he was used to "breaking" with around seven kilometres or so left. By the time he realised what was happening, the race was over. They did a quick re-measurement (running a car on the route) and found that it was indeed short. The guy who did the measurement was apparently a qualified technical official. He messed it up. More than that, the TD added to the mess-up. The medals stood, not the timings. Shameful. Jay, you can be re-assured that such things won't happen in India. Our technical officials are very competent. In fact quite a number of them are invited by host countries when the Asian championships are held to oversee key areas.

[jayakris]

I am sure that won't happen in India. But it still boggles my mind that they just went ahead and allowed the race to go on at SAG when a whole bunch of people knew that there was something wrong! ..

Strange things happen sometime though. I remember a women's tennis match (I think it was a challenger in China, but not very sure) a few years back when the court was marked wrongly on one court. The service line was off by 3 feet. The players (I think at least one of whom was a WTA top-150 player) felt that something was weird, but even they did not really check up either till after the match....

Jay

[Ankit Desai]

IOA wants to desist from receiving Ministry support


Czar(Kalmadi) going high, trying to get more and more power.


Ankit

[prasen9]

So, should government regulate sports bodies that send teams to "represent" the country (de-facto)? The BCCI says that the Indian cricket team is not the Indian cricket team but BCCI team. Etc.

[michael]

The only reason is they dont want to be accountable for all expenses. They want to get grants and use it as they wish. Same thing with all sports federation. Now all federations will wash off hands with govt grant and sports wil have no funds at all. A very tricky situation , indeed.

[Sandeep]

The delay in getting the stadiums ready is really a concern now. With just six months away there are still 38 issues which are considered critical. I am just curious to know if this kind of delay happened anywhere else? Pathetic!!!!

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/athletics/8663031.stm

[prasen9]

I heard that they were somewhat behind in China too but they made up. I think this is not new (in developing countries at least). At the end, it depends upon the organizers to put in the extra effort and overtime and get things done.

[mugu]

They say they get pittance from the Govt as direct grant, if any. IOA says it gets nil and that's why they have said "we don't want any money from you."
The Federations do get huge support, but again, nothing much as direct grants for them to "spend as they wish" or better/worse still "to loot at will".
The Federations say Govt grants are for coaching camps, hiring of coaches, equipment, foreign trips for training and competitions etc. Camps are held by Sports Authority of India (SAI). It also pays the coaches' salaries. Training trips abroad are funded by the Ministry. It pays directly to Govt travel agency for air tickets. Board and lodging expenses are quite often paid directly to agencies abroad (some times to Federations when they submit bills).
Govt allows use of its stadiums for training and competition purposes. Many Federations do not pay the nominal fee that SAI had been charging for allowing its facilities in Delhi while they conduct competitions.
Federations now say Parliament sanctions funds for sports promotion and Govt is duty bound to spend some money for training elite sportsmen and women and in developing infrastructure.
Public still believes IOA and Feds are eating up crores of rupees every year.
Now, IOA has said this, "don't give us anything". The Federations are saying :" Please give all funds directly to sportspersons in camps through SAI if at all you are giving allowances, as you claim, through us."
Suppose Govt says: " We don't spend anything on Indian sports from today". Then everything will come to a grinding halt. Then perhaps even the Sports Ministry, SAI etc will also have to wind up.

[usaindian]

Australia to send world gymnastics medallists to Delhi
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/ar ... dO5iCMQAnA
Sport and dance events mark Commonwealth Games handover
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-t ... l-10726249

[arjun2761]

dual world championships pommel horse medallist (Prashanth) Sellathurai

Good to see Indian genes do well in gymnastics -- not a sport you would expect Indians to excel at. IIRC, the US gymnastics team has also included ethnic Indians in the past 2 olympics (one in the mens and one in the womens).

[pawangharmalkar]

Politician are gonna kill sports in india