Top athletes are snubbing the Commonwealth Games as safety fears and complaints of filthy accommodation have left the event in crisis and India facing a national shame with the opening just days away.
The latest high-profile withdrawals from the Delhi Games include the English Olympic 400m gold medallist Christine Ohuruogu and world triple jump champion Phillips Idowu, with Australia warning more of its competitors might follow.
Their decisions come after complaints by some teams about the state of the athletes’ village, safety fears due to the collapse of a footbridge near one of the venues and question marks over security after a gun attack on tourists.
England’s Idowu wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter Tuesday: “Sorry people, but I have children to think about. My safety is more important to them than a medal.”
India’s media on Wednesday described the complaints about “filthy” and “uninhabitable” conditions at the showpiece athlete’s village as a national embarrassment, calling for those responsible to be held accountable.
“India has been shamed globally,” the mass circulation Times of India newspaper said in a front-page editorial. “The guilty must be identified and brought to book.
“It may not restore our reputation, but at least it will show that we, as a nation, value our honour.”
Games organisers have downplayed the mounting concerns at home and abroad about the October 3 to 14 event and said they still expected a “very good” field of athletes .
New Delhi is expecting to host about 7 000 athletes and officials from countries and territories mostly from the former British empire for the multi-sport event that was meant to showcase India on the international stage.
“Some people may not come due to injuries or some other reason but we have a very good field taking part in the Games,” organising committee secretary general Lalit Bhanot said. “I can reassure everyone that the athletes will enjoy their stay in New Delhi. The stadiums are world class and so is the Games village. We will be ready by the time they start arriving this week.”
Tearful withdrawal
But Australia warned that more competitors could withdraw, following on the heels of world discus champion Dani Samuels, who made a tearful withdrawal over health and security worries on Tuesday.
Minister for Sport Mark Arbib said Australia’s Commonwealth Games chief, Perry Crosswhite, was expecting “a number more” to follow and that he would be imposing tough rules restricting athletes’ travel in New Delhi.
A home-grown Islamist group on Sunday claimed responsibility for a shooting on a tourist bus outside New Delhi’s Jama Masjid that injured two Taiwanese nationals, prompting a number of Western countries to issue travel warnings.
The Indian capital has also been in the grip of an outbreak of dengue fever, caused by stagnant pools of water that have accumulated on construction sites for the Games.
No team has yet said they will withdraw entirely but New Zealand team officials have warned that the entire event could be in doubt if improvements are not made to the athletes’ village.
The Commonwealth Games Federation on Tuesday blasted the official accommodation as “uninhabitable” with rubble in doorways and malfunctioning toilets, along with urgent electrical and other problems.
Officials from some teams have even taken to cleaning the facilities themselves to bring them up to scratch.
The revelations about the village come after a series of delays and missed deadlines for venues, plus a catalogue of claims about corruption, dubious contracts and the use of poor quality materials.
Workers have been toiling to fix leaking roofs and other problems caused by unusually heavy monsoon rains as well as finish landscaping and paving of the city’s roads and footpaths — seven years after India was awarded the Games.
On Tuesday, a footbridge being built at the main Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, which will host the opening ceremony and athletics, collapsed, injuring 27 labourers, four of them seriously.
The approximately 100m bridge, previously suspended by cables from a large steel arch, fell down as workers were paving it, a witness told Agence France-Presse near the crumpled sections of the structure. — Sapa-AFP