Spotlight turns to sports at Commonwealth Games

NEW DELHI (AP):

Small crowds, minor glitches and the prospect of contracting dengue fever were still concerns for organisers yesterday as the spotlight finally turned to sports at the Commonwealth Games.

Swimming was the first sport to get going in New Delhi yesterday, the morning after the Games officially opened with a spectacular ceremony at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

India had another minor setback when the first gold medal of the Games was won by Nigerian weightlifter Augustina Nwaokolo in the women's 48-kilogramme category. Sonia Chanu, who had been expected to win the host country's first gold medal, finished second and Indian teammate Sandhya Rani Devi Atom took bronze.

But health issues, one of the main concerns in the buildup to the Games, came to the fore on the weekend when 30-year-old Indian lawn bowls team official Ruptu Gogoi was admitted to hospital with the mosquito-borne dengue fever.

English freestyle swimmer Steven Beckerleg, however, said he was not that concerned about getting the disease.

"We've been seeing them spraying frequently," Beckerleg said, "and the fact that one person has acquired it really doesn't worry me."

Others also seemed to be unaffected by the news.

"We've got supplies of repellents," the New Zealand team said in a statement. "So far we haven't seen too many mosquitoes but we're continuing to apply regularly."

Organisers have been regularly spraying pesticides at high-risk areas, including at the athletes' village and at the swimming venue, where stagnant water provides a breeding ground for mosquitoes.

In the aquatics centre, Australia started to dominate right from the start, winning three of the first five swimming gold medals awarded.

Earning silver

Kylie Palmer won the 200-metre freestyle in one minute, 57.50 seconds, with Jazmin Carlin of Wales earning silver and dual Olympic gold medallist, Rebecca Adlington, of England in third. Alicia Coutts later won the 200 individual medley in 2:09.70. Australian teammate Emily Seebohm, who can still win seven gold medals in New Delhi, was second and Julia Wilkinson of Canada was third.

"It's nice to step up and show that I'm capable of being a champion and being the best," Coutts said.

Ryan Cochrane of Canada won the men's 400 freestyle and Chad Le Clos of South Africa took the men's 200 butterfly before the Australian men's 4x100 freestyle relay team claimed the final gold medal of the night.

Australia also won the men's team competition in gymnastics, while Amirul Hamizan Ibrahim of Malaysia won the men's 56-kilogramme category weightlifting gold. The Indians again won silver and bronze in weightlifting.

Malaysia's best medal hopes both won on the opening day of the Games. Top-ranked men's badminton player Lee Chong Wei beat Joshua Green of Isle of Man, and No. 1 Nicol David defeated Damindhi Udangawe of Sri Lanka in the women's squash competition.

Although the swim stadium had a good size crowd for the evening session, many of the venues were struggling to bring people in.

At the 19,118-seat field hockey stadium, only about 100 spectators came to watch New Zealand beat Wales 5-1 in the opening match of a tournament, featuring India's second-favourite sport. Rohan Bopanna's match to open the tennis competition drew only dozens of fans at the 5,015-seat venue.

Crowd improving

In netball, Australia beat Samoa 76-39 in front of only 58 spectators.

"Netball is not that huge in India so I can't imagine the crowd improving much, but we don't care," Australia shooter Cath Cox said. "If we win a gold medal in front of a man and a dog, that's fine with me."

Last week, the government said only 200,000 of the 1.7 million tickets for the Games had been sold. Yesterday, Games ticketing chief Monika Jolly said she "could not reveal any figure straight away" when asked about the volume of sales or value of tickets sold.

Glitches were also reported at some venues. The boxing weigh-in scales were giving faulty readings, causing several athletes to panic because they were said to be too heavy. But after testing the scales, the organisers decided to reschedule the weigh-in to this morning, the day the boxing competition opens.