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Delhi 2010


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Hey mattgys. What's the news re the netball matches? What's the problem, or daren't I ask!!

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According to morethanthegames.co.uk the whole media system hasn't gone live yet, so don't know if netball is facing similar problems to tennis in people don't know who they're playing or when.

Also seems a lot of workers, including VIP chauffeurs, going on strike over conditions and pay.

The BBC preview thought was pretty good and without glossing over the issues fairly positive. How these games could have been lifted though just with the presence of Usain Bolt. I know he never intended to go, but the presence of arguably the most famous Olympian of the moment would really have helped shift the focus onto the sport.

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On similar note BBC News we're in the pool hall and mentioned there were quite a few behind the scene problems including the air conditioning in the pool hall had been switched off as the guys looking after it have gone on strike as they haven't been fed!

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The netball rep had a looooong list of complaints during her interview on One News here in NZ. Lots of little things, but things that a smart organising committee would have made sure wouldnt happen.

To name a few

* umpire uniforms not supplied

* volunteers not allowed into venue due to security

* having phones and usb sticks confiscated when going into venue (international netball officials phones/usb i might add)

* Officials allowance not given

* Volunteers not being fed 6 or 7 hours into shift, food having been waiting for a few hours, cold, chance of contamination

She was serious about these issues.

Unfortunately, Delhi , the OC and to an extent some of the public , have taken the *victim* stance now - whenever critique is put on the organisation of these Games. It's just painful to have to watch, western bias this, lies lies lies that - pfff.

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Obviously the BBC's word isn't gospel, despite what some might say, but interesting yesterday how their Asia correspondent was saying the Indian press was pretty much leading the criticism of the organising committee (for bringing shame on the country etc.) rather than just passing off the criticism as "Western bias" as the OC have tried to do.

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Obviously the BBC's word isn't gospel, despite what some might say, but interesting yesterday how their Asia correspondent was saying the Indian press was pretty much leading the criticism of the organising committee (for bringing shame on the country etc.) rather than just passing off the criticism as "Western bias" as the OC have tried to do.

Precisely, and I have been wondering why some forumers here seem to feed on that "western bias" thing to the point of actually fulfilling that prophecy.

Which was also why I wondered why this thread appear to die off when the games appear ready to proceed largely unhindered afterall. Are people joining in the criticism party just because it was fashionable to do so days ago?

If I were to believe my local press wholesale, it would seem the games is largely uneventful save for a few "western complains". The Singapore team are happy with what they see, are highly impressed by some facilities and the catering, and only have issues with small problems like some phones not working etc.

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This thread will (hopefully) come alive with positive news once everything's underway - until then it's just anticipation. The big talking points over the last three weeks HAVE been the unreadiness of the village in particular but also other venues - that's not Western bias but fact. The build up HAS been a shambles and no way to run an international multi-sport event; we're not going to not talk about that.

Anyway, we're nearly there now. I've got the ceremony build-up open in another tab, and the BBC coverage is pretty good so far. They haven't glossed over the problems - they had a short interview with Craig Hunter saying things were a mess when they came to inspect the village a couple of weeks ago, but they also interviewed many of our athletes who are now happy.

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Anyway, we're nearly there now. I've got the ceremony build-up open in another tab, and the BBC coverage is pretty good so far. They haven't glossed over the problems - they had a short interview with Craig Hunter saying things were a mess when they came to inspect the village a couple of weeks ago, but they also interviewed many of our athletes who are now happy.

Yeap. Of course I am not advocating that only positive news be reported here, but I have been calling for some balance, and to give credit where they are due. My personal opinions did change over time, as it rightfully should, as a wider variety of sources begin to emerge and as real progress is made in the final days to the games.

I hope it is the same for others as the games proceed as I knew it would a week ago, although of course we can expect problems along the way.

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Just because you can put on a few dancers and a light show or employ underpaid migrant workers to fix what you should have done months ago doesn't mean the games are running smoothly now:

Boxing weigh-in farce at Games

Ian McCullough

October 4, 2010 - 3:44PM

Chaos and confusion reigned supreme at the official weigh-in for the Commonwealth Games boxing competition on Monday with the scales recording incorrect readings.

Amid farcical scenes, boxers from around the world were left sweating - literally - after being wrongly measured as overweight - with many having to run around the athletes' village or jump into a sauna to shed the kilos.

"I have never seen nothing like it," said Australia's assistant coach Don Abnett.

"Our boys were really down and worried they are going to get a real telling off from the coach for going overweight, when all along they are fine.

"We have brought our own calipers from the AIS and have been monitoring all of our boys and they are absolutely spot-on so we were very surprised by the readings.

"Two of them went on and the scales said they were 700 grams overweight so they had go and sweat it off.

"But when they got back it then said they were two kilos heavier than before!

"It is ridiculous and now we have boys who have lost too much weight which is not good."

Games officials realised something was amiss when a large number of fighters were overweight, and decided to act after irate coaches demanded to have the scales checked.

A 50kg weight then was brought up from the gym at the athletes' village and, when placed on the scales, measured at 51.4kg.

A second weigh-in will now take place tomorrow morning, just hours before the competition starts, something Abnett said is not ideal.

"It is a farce, but there is not a lot more we can do, I have never seen this before.

"I thought last year when I witnessed a bloke in Victoria win a fight with one arm I had seen it all, but this even tops that.

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As rehearsals continue apace for the Handover Ceremony, Glasgow 2014 has revealed the centrepiece to the performance – a 17m high and 30.5m long inflatable replica of the Clyde Auditorium, affectionately known as the "armadillo".

The replica "Armadillo" is made out of 4,500 square metres of high tenacity nylon fabric and will be inflated and managed by 16 cast members using powerful backpack "leaf blowers" with ultra high air throughput. Three of those cast members' usual job is working for Glasgow City Council to clear the city's parks of leaves.

The inflatable was designed using the building's architectural drawings and then modelled in 3D where it underwent rigorous testing for wind resilience.

“Creating an inflatable Armadillo has afforded us a lot of creative licence in how it is used in the performance, and particularly how it leaves the Stadium – but you’ll have to wait till the 14th October to find out more!”

Edited by scotguy
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will be inflated and managed by 16 cast members using powerful backpack “leaf blowers” with ultra high air throughput. Three of those cast members’ usual job is working for Glasgow City Council to clear the city’s parks of leaves.

You think they will be able to hear the stage directions piped in thru their headsets?? :blink:

So, you didn't end up going to India?

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Isn't it reassuring to know that with the pathetic build up to these games now that the events are running the spectators are hardly anywhere to be seen? All the money expended and the lives ruined for a CGs that either the locals can't afford to go to or have little to no interest in.

More goals than fans - Australia 76, spectators 58

October 4, 2010 - 6:08PM

Australia’s netballers scored more goals than there were spectators watching them, getting their Commonwealth Games off to the perfect start with a comfortable 37-goal win over Samoa on Monday.

In front of a crowd which would have fitted in a bus - just 58 legitimate spectators - the Diamonds scored more than a goal per fan in a 76-39 cruise past world No.9 Samoa.

Mercifully a similar number of media and curious volunteers helped pad out the embarrassingly empty Thyagaraj Sports Complex - and were rewarded with sizzling netball as the gold medal favourites powered out of the blocks....

netball_crowd-420x0.jpg

And earlier tonight whilst watching some of Foxtel's coverage of the swimming (with a pitiful attendance at the first night of finals) two leading Australian swimmers have been confirmed as victims of food poisoning from food served in the village.

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Another thing to add to Delhi's disasters - the 10m Diving Board, well, isn't 10m high! It's allegedly 10.7m high! You really couldn't make it up - indeed Delhi is providing all the material necessary for the BBC's forthcoming spoof on the organising of London 2012.

And I don't think anyone has even mentioned how the Mens 4x100m relay had to be delayed today while debris was being cleared out of the pool!

On the positive though, the medal ceremonies are hilarious!

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debris in the pool?

CEILINGS: More architectural issues emerged with the start of the men's 4x100m freestyle final delayed while volunteers fished what appeared to be flakes of ceiling plaster out of the pool. It was the last thing organizers needed after the pre-Games issues at the weightlifting venue.

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CEILINGS: More architectural issues emerged with the start of the men's 4x100m freestyle final delayed while volunteers fished what appeared to be flakes of ceiling plaster out of the pool. It was the last thing organizers needed after the pre-Games issues at the weightlifting venue.

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I agree with Rob...It's been a bit difficult to determine what is a credible story and what is a clear beat-up coming out of Dehli. The Australian and UK media have been particularly bad at beating up the true extent of problems.

In any event, should even a small amount of these stories prove correct, the Dehli Games have been a complete shambles.

Glasgow need only host a donkey race to look better than Dehli has so far.

I am very surprised at the lack of attendance. I expected organisers to be giving the tickets away just so the stadiums were full.

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I agree with Rob...It's been a bit difficult to determine what is a credible story and what is a clear beat-up coming out of Dehli. The Australian and UK media have been particularly bad at beating up the true extent of problems.

In any event, should even a small amount of these stories prove correct, the Dehli Games have been a complete shambles.

Glasgow need only host a donkey race to look better than Dehli has so far.

I am very surprised at the lack of attendance. I expected organisers to be giving the tickets away just so the stadiums were full.

Frankly the Australian and UK media (having scanned over the last few months regularly many international media outlets) have been if anything too kind and more reserved in their attitudes to the build up and running of these games than the local Indian media has. The Times of India, NDTV, Hindustani Times etc etc have been tearing shreds off the authorities involved in these schemozzle games, and contrasted with even the most tabloid of media organisations (News Limited) downunder it's only been in the last maybe month where they have been aggressively chasing stories.

In fact it's hard to accuse the likes of our local media for beating things up when it was the likes of the BBC and the News Limited papers who were the key distributors for some of the absolutely disgusting photos that came out of the village; we weren't talking about retouched images or glossy photo shoots supplied by the organising committee; this was solid photojournalism which demonstrated to the world how shabbily things were done in the village.

As for the giving away of tickets it seems as if there is yet again typically chaotic organisation at play...collecting internet tickets have been an issue (with spectators having to wait 2-3 hours at the very few outlets in Delhi), thus deterring the crowds plus it's going to be a serious burden on an already crippled and blown budget to reduce ticket revenues even further. As cited above school children are supposedly going to be brought in however this again underlines the paucity of support or organisation of these games.

I bet right now the likes of Fennell and Hooper are just hanging out for the first sounds of a bagpipe to echo round the closing ceremony...

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AP link

India can't match high bar set by China's Olympics

By STEPHEN WILSON (AP) – 10 hours ago

LONDON — China and India are Asian neighbors, rivals and emerging powers. When it comes to organizing major international sporting events, though, there is no comparison.

While China announced itself as a global leader with the spectacular and grandiose Beijing Olympics in 2008, India has endured international embarrassment with the chaotic, last-minute preparations for the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi.

India's predicament illustrates how high China set the bar and how major sports extravaganzas can make or break a country's image and reputation. It also serves as a cautionary tale for taking big events to countries that may not yet be ready to meet the huge organizational challenge.

"Both China and India cried (out) for international recognition and respect," said Xu Gouqi, a professor at the University of Hong Kong and author of "Olympic Dreams: China and Sports." "Both tried to use sports events as coming-out parties. Both approached the sports events as political tools.

"But economically and socially India was at a disadvantage compared to Beijing's games."

The push to take the biggest sports events to new countries and territories — not just the usual powerful, developed nations — has been growing in recent years. It's no coincidence that China hosted the Summer Olympics, or that South Africa just hosted the World Cup in Africa for the first time, or that Brazil will welcome both events in 2014 and 2016.

"It's really important that countries which have not traditionally staged major sporting events should be encouraged to do so, and you have to recognize that there are going to be challenges if you want to truly globalize sport," said Sebastian Coe, the former middle-distance running great who heads the organizing committee for the 2012 London Olympics.

Indeed, some countries are better cut out for the task than others.

China used the Olympics as a global platform to introduce itself as a rising, modern power — and largely succeeded in dazzling the world.

Chinese leaders spared no expense, spending a staggering $40 billion — much of it on new infrastructure, subways and ultramodern venues such as the Bird's Nest and Water Cube — to create the largest, costliest games in Olympic history. Despite controversies over human rights and press freedom, the games were widely hailed as superbly organized.

The result was an immense boost of national pride for China's 1.3 billion citizens, as the country basked in a new image internationally. Transforming itself from poverty to relative prosperity within three decades, China was finally able to showcase its achievements before a televised audience of billions.

"The regime's political legitimacy seemed to be boosted substantially with the games and China as a nation won a substantial level of recognition, respect and even admiration from the rest of the world," Xu said. "In short, the world was shocked and awed by the Beijing Games."

At the heart of China's success was the reality that Beijing Games were a state-run national priority with unlimited financial resources and workers. At one point, the Chinese were so far ahead in building the venues that the IOC asked them to slow down.

Contrast that with the situation in populous, poor and democratic India, where preparations for the Commonwealth Games — an Olympic-style event featuring around 7,000 athletes from more than 70 countries and territories — went down to the wire ahead of Sunday's opening ceremony.

The games teetered on the verge of cancellation when officials complained the athletes' village was filthy and uninhabitable, a footbridge leading to the main stadium collapsed and part of the roof at the weightlifting venue fell in. Several high-profile athletes pulled out due to health and safety concerns.

A colorful opening ceremony on Sunday night featuring gigantic drums, classical singers and dancers and a Bollywood theme song lifted some of the gloom, but problems persisted Monday on the first day of competition. There were paltry crowds at most events, the weigh-in scales at boxing gave faulty readings and worries over dengue fever escalated after a 30-year-old Indian lawn bowls team official was admitted to a hospital over the weekend with the mosquito-borne disease.

The messy buildup and rocky start have underlined the risks of organizing such events in developing countries.

International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge said that even with the push to make sports accessible to everyone on the planet, his first concern is finding suitable conditions for athletes.

"The main purpose and overriding purpose of the Olympic Games is to offer the athletes a good experience," Rogge told The Associated Press. "We go for quality first. If quality means you have to go to a more developed country, let it be so. Under no circumstances would I agree to go to a country at the expense of the welfare of the athletes."

India's organizational problems have been blamed on several factors, including corruption, mismanagement and shoddy construction. The chaos dealt a blow to the country's plans of bidding for the 2020 Olympics. Senior Canadian IOC member Dick Pound said India's Olympic hopes had been put back "by at least a decade," while Rogge urged patience.

"We had doomsday scenarios in Athens (for the 2004 Summer Games), and these were absolutely very good games," he said. "The Greeks were able to pull out a very good effort. They were very, very good games at the last moment, so this could happen in Delhi."

The contrast between Beijing and New Delhi can also be traced to the sharply different sporting cultures in the two countries. China has become a global sports power, topping the gold medal tally in Beijing with 51 and winning 100 total medals — the result of a highly organized state program to select and train athletes and target medals. India has won only 7 Olympic medals ever, including its first individual gold in Beijing in shooting.

Cricket is the national sport in India but does not feature in the Commonwealth Games or Olympics. Support for the home team and medal-winning performances by its athletes are considered crucial to an event's success. That was underlined by the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, where Canada led the gold medal count as Canadian fans brought a carnival atmosphere to the streets.

London Olympic organizers say they hope to replicate Vancouver's party mood in 2012, but are quick to stress they are not trying to outdo Beijing. Those games, Coe repeatedly points out, were held on a grander scale than any other.

"We will never see a games like Beijing again," Coe said earlier this year. "That's not typical of the way games are going to be delivered. ... The beauty of the Olympic movement is no games should try to copy the previous one."

With less than two years to go, British organizers are on schedule and on budget. Despite the troubled economy and government austerity measures, the capital is on track with its 9.3 billion pound ($14.7 billion) project that includes revitalizing a rundown area of east London into the showpiece Olympic Park.

In the end, Olympic officials say, choosing a host city must not be a gamble or risk because the stakes are simply too high.

"Athletes have only one or two chances to fulfill their dream," Rogge said. "You can't say to an athlete: 'Oh well, we organize the games here and there. We'll see you next time.' There is no next time for the athlete because his career will be over. That is the bottom line."

London-based AP Sports Writer Stephen Wilson has been covering the Olympic beat since 1991. Associated Press Writers Tini Tran in Beijing and Tales Azzoni in Sao Paulo contributed to this report.

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