Glasgow confident of exceptional Commonwealth Games 2014 preparations
John Scott, the Commonwealth Games 2014 chief, while talking to the media assured the world that it would not observe the mess and chaos depicted at Delhi Commonwealth Games when after four years the event would move to Scotland.
The chief organizer for the next event said that the problems that plagued the sport event at Delhi included filthy accommodations for the athletes, poor transportation and catering arrangements, contaminated water at pools and dengue outbreaks, which, the
world must not expect to be repeated at Glasgow.
The chief executive accepted that lingering problems were observed at Delhi while the event proceeded, however, he avoided holding the current authorities responsible for that. While sharing his view point, Scott said that there had been some real challenges
for Indian organizing committee, which, it had to take care of without any further ado. He further said that despite of the mistakes committed at Delhi, the authorities over there were honest enough to admit them. He also praised the efforts of the organizing
committee at Delhi for taking the issues head on.
The chief executive admitted that it was quite common for the host countries of the sports events to face problems; however, he assured that Glasgow was less likely to repeat the mistakes depicted at Delhi. He further said that he was happy that the world
was moving towards a stage where it would be all about sports. He cautioned that world should not lose the sight from what was it all about, most importantly the athletes and the sport itself. He assured that the Glasgow Games would be athlete centred and
sport focused in their approach.
In response to questions regarding security concerns and the overall performance of organizing team, the chief executive for Glasgow Games 2014 said that his team was confident about delivering a successful competition. He further said that when it was about
staging major sports event, Scotland and UK were very experienced in it.
He admired the sports event which was planned to be organized in 2012, where 14 games from Olympics sports would also be included. Coming back to the question of security issue, he said that his team was working with the security officials’ right from the
day one. He further said that his team was developing a thorough understanding with the security officials from Strathclyde police regarding their security plan at Glasgow Games.
Scott also lamented the fact that for many athletes the games had a low priority, as even some of the high profile athletes like Usain Bolt and Chris Hoy refused to attend the Delhi Commonwealth Games event. He said that players should not miss the multi-sport
international games like commonwealth games, which always give immense experience even to the most nurtured players. He said that major Games were all about medals, as the history books only show the names who won the medals.
Sharing his team’s effort for making it sure that the 2014 Games would be quite well on time, the chief executive said that the organizing committee was rather concerned with constructing the venues as well as the athletes’ village on time, and that too,
on a reasonable budget. He said that the venues in Glasgow are already are world class and well placed. He further said that 70 percent of venues at Glasgow were in place even before the city bid for organizing the event. While concluding his remarks, Scott
said that though some of the larger projects were still to be initiated, he was hopeful that everything would be in place well before time.
Tags: