Fennell quietly confident

With just under nine weeks left before the start of the XIX Commonwealth Games in New Dehli, India, organisers are in a race against time to have everything in place. There have been several delays, charges of corruption and now the threat of an embarrassment of global proportions.

The non-commitment of some of the world's top athletes to the Games has done little to help the confidence of the worldwide audience and has lowered expectations. The biggest name to opt out of the Games is Jamaica's World and Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt.

However, despite the seemingly unending doubts about India's ability to deliver a successful staging of the October 3-14 games, Mike Fennell, president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, is quietly confident that everything will be in place.

Fennell, who is also the president of the Jamaica Olympic Association, while speaking to The Gleaner yesterday, admitted to being a little concerned but was nonetheless confident that everything will be ready in time for the tournament that will see athletes from former British colonies competing in 17 different sporting disciplines.

"I have concerns because I cannot be happy until everything is ready so I will remain concerned until everything is correctly in spot," said Fennell. "We are eight months behind in terms of construction but we are still on time for the start of the Games in October."

Some reports coming out of India claim that with just a few weeks to go the city is still resembling a big construction site with venues still under construction. Fennell, who will be travelling to India in a couple of weeks to get another look at the situation is, however, not too bothered by this.

Everything is on track

"There is a lot of cleaning up and tidying up taking place, as well as landscaping; it's a massive set of venues that are being built and it was always going to take time," Fennell said. "In order to ensure that everything is on track, I am actually going there (India) to take another look at what is happening ... everything is on track for the installation of the Games overlay."

Five-time Olympic rowing gold medalist Sir Steve Redgrave seems to be in agreement with Fennell. The Englishman, after a recent visit to the city, was full of praise for the organisers and suggested that they should target hosting the Olympic Games in the future.

"After the Commonwealth Games, if India feel they have the infrastructure, then go for the Olympics. Having the Olympics in India would be absolutely amazing. The enthusiasm would be much higher than the Commonwealth Games. India should take forward the Games legacy and bid for Olympics," said Redgrave.

- André Lowe