Athletes endorse state of village

NEW DELHI

The clock ticked down on the Delhi Commonwealth Games on Tuesday with signs that conditions in the much-criticised athletes’ village were finally improving as hundreds of competitors arrive.

Australia, one of the countries that had slammed the village last week, said organisers were working hard to improve the state of facilities just five days before the start of the event.

“It’s pretty good,” Lynsey Armitage, a member of the Australian lawn bowls team, told reporters. “I’ve been here for the past two days. The dining hall is fantastic.”

Facilities passed as fit

South Africa, too, said the first contingent from its 150-strong squad would move into the village yesterday after the facilities had been passed as fit by the team leader.

“The athletes are very happy with the reception they’ve got so far,” spokesman Mark Keohane told AFP, referring to the first batch of competitors who arrived on Monday and spent their first night in a hotel.

There was possibly more bad news for the athletics competition, however, which has already been hit by pull-outs and no-shows from the biggest world crowd-pullers such as Jamaican sprinter Usain Bolt.

Caster Semenya, the South African 800-metre gold medallist, was expected to lend some star-power to the Games’ line-up, but her coach was quoted as saying on Monday that she was struggling with a back injury and was now a doubt.

The showpiece multi-sport event, which opens on Sunday, had teetered on the brink of collapse last Tuesday amid worries about security, a bridge falling down and the state of the facilities. (AFP)