Problems continue at Commonwealth Games in New Delhi, now the inaccurate scales
The crises hit Commonwealth Games finally kicked off at the Nehru Stadium in New Delhi with a stellar opening ceremony on Sunday. Vibrant and rich in culture, the razzmatazz overshadowed all the problems that have been following the Organizing Committee
for the last two months now.
However, every time things head in the right direction, something totally bizarre breaks out. It is now believed that the boxers will now have another day to fast and shed off those extra pounds. Some problem with the calibration of the scales was discovered,
which was initially denied by the competition manager Lenni Gama. The teams were sent back and have been called again tomorrow for the weigh-in session. The scales will now be checked and rescaled accurately so that the right weight category plays the right
players.
Gama and the organizers were very furious today. Gama also accused the teams with overweight boxers to have created the whole fiasco about the scales being inaccurate. The management of team New Zealand was extremely annoyed with the whole situation because
the boxers who worked day in and day out to lose the extra pounds were classified as being overweight for the tournament. The officials had to face a lot of complaints by the coaches of different teams whose boxers were told that they were overweight, although
the athletes were perfectly in shape for the Games. In a similar instance, one of the athletes weighed 50 kg while the scales showed his weight as being 51.4 kg. The weigh-in sessions will now be carried out on Tuesday.
The cameramen covering the Commonwealth Games had to be very careful so that the empty stadium was not very obvious in the broadcast. The venue of the netball event was welcomed by an empty stadium due to a lack of interest for the sport amongst the general
Indian public. Since most of the spectators come from India, the turnout at the venue was expected to be low. Dominating teams in the netball event include England, Australia, New Zealand and South Africa. The turnout at the venue was even lesser than the
number of goals scored by New Zealand and Papua New Guinea. Despite the opening ceremony being a full house, the tickets sale for the tournaments is only about 10 to 20 percent. Sparse attendance was witnessed at the badminton, bowling and hockey venues as
well. However, the hockey match scheduled to take place later this week between Pakistan and India has a better ticket sell out.
Meanwhile, Indian weightlifters living at the Games Village had requested the officials of the Organizing Committee to allow them to bring their cows inside the Village for fresh milk. The request was out rightly turned down by the officials since the presence
of stray dogs and snake from the Village had already kept them in the headlines for quite some time. The officials also said that the athletes can have as much milk as they want on the dining table but having cows inside was simply out of question. Indian
athletes should not be worried about their performance even if they are not provided with fresh milk on a daily basis. In the previous edition of the Commonwealth Games in Melbourne 2006, Indian athletes claimed 23 gold, 24 silver and 11 bronze medals. One
of the strongest contenders of a gold medal in the Indian contingent is world champion Sushil Kumar. Sushil also handed over the Queen’s baton to Prince Charles at the Opening Ceremony on Sunday evening.
Commonwealth Games, New Delhi have been making the headlines for the last two months now. Despite spending a crazy $6 billion, issues and controversies related to the mega refuse to die down. Even during the spectacular opening ceremony, when everything
seemed perfect, there was a wave of fear that rippled across the crowd when they heard about a dengue fever outbreak at the Games Village. The Organizing Committee is still being blamed with the crisis of poor hygiene and unfinished living quarters at the
Games Village.
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