India News.---CWG 2010

Commonwealth Games: finally, it's ready to roll

Parikshit Luthra , CNN-IBN 
Posted on Oct 02, 2010 at 07:09 | Updated Oct 02, 2010 at 08:05

============================================================

New Delhi: With a day to go to the inauguration of the Commonwealth Games, Delhi is finally ready to host the Games - 5,800 athletes are in the capital making it the biggest Commonwealth Games ever.

After months of criticism and bad press Delhi finally gets a thumbs up from foreign delegates and media.

The tide has finally turned in favour of Delhi. After much negative publicity, the Commonwealth Games has made history by being the biggest ever in terms of participants. More than 6,700 athletes have confirmed that they will be attending the mega sporting event in Delhi.

Over 5,800 foreign delegations have already arrived in the city and many more are expected to arrive on Saturday. With this Delhi overtakes Melbourne, which hosted the Games in 2006, in terms of participation. Only 5,766 athletes attended the Melbourne Games. This spells good news for the much-criticised Organising Committee (OC). Remember, over a dozen atheletes have already pulled out citing security concerns and the threat of dengue fever. And that's not all, foreign journalists arriving in the capital say they're pleasantly surprised and impressed with the arrangements.

With just one day left for the opening ceremony, Delhi will now be known to have hosted the biggest Games surpassing participation in Melbourne four years ago, which stood at 5,766 athletes and officials.

The Games will get a further boost with the arrival of International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge and a host of other top officials and dignitaries on Friday. Olympic gold-medallist shooter Abhinav Bindra has been named as the host country's flag bearer for the opening ceremony scheduled to take place on October 3, 2010 at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.