By IANS,
London : A top official of Commonwealth Games England (CGE) has revealed that his team was close to pulling out of the Delhi Games, a media report said Friday.
“Every day for two weeks we had board meetings and conferences. It was close, of course it was,” Dame Kelly Holmes, the president of CGE, said Thursday.
“It was only really in the last week of coming over here that our confidence grew,” Holmes was quoting as saying by the Guardian. “It was only when the chief minister of Delhi, Sheila Dikshit, got involved with the organisation of the Games at the last minute that CGE made the decision to go ahead.”
“CGE was keen to take a clear position to reassure the competitors trying to prepare for the event. Many of them pulled out, making rash decisions because of the information that was out there. That’s a shame because I think a number of athletes pulled out only because of what they heard before.”
The organisation of the Games improved as it went on after suffering at first because of the rushed nature of the preparations. “Everybody was harping on about security and I think they put everything into that. I’ve never seen anywhere so secure in my life,” she said.
Holmes stressed that she thought the English athletes would be better competitors for coming through it. “I think it’s been one of the hardest build-ups to a championships that many of these athletes will ever experience. The bond that these athletes have got now is just incredible. I’ve been in the (Games) village a couple of times and it reminds me of Sydney (Olympics) in 2000.”
England managed to get third position after Australia and India at the Games that ended Thursday.