Snake in a room and collapsing bed add to Games controversies

Rob Waugh

TROUBLED Commonweath Games organisers continue to be dogged by problems with the readiness of Delhi to host the event with one competitor reporting he had fallen through his bed and another finding a snake in his room.

Concerns over the facilities are still proving a challenge as nearly 50 English athletes are due to move in today.

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Boxer Akhil Kumar, who won gold for India at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, said the bed in his accommodation had “collapsed” when he sat on it.

“I checked the bed and part of it had no plywood on it. It was disappointing after enduring a long journey. The athletes are at least entitled to a decent place to rest. Even the toilets are not very clean.”

Meanwhile South African High Commissioner Harris Mbulelo said there were “very grave concerns” that a snake had been found in an athlete’s room. “If snakes are found we can’t ask our teams to stay there,” he added. It is not known if the snake was poisonous.

International sports officials have said the situation had improved dramatically in the athletes’ village over the past couple of days after inspections last week turned up rooms spattered with chewing tobacco and human excrement.

But some teams said the situation remained grim.

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Tuelo Serufho, head of the Botswana contingent, said his team’s rooms in the village were “unliveable for our athletes”, with filthy bedsheets, bathroom fixtures that did not work and construction debris yet to be cleared away.

“Our athletes will be here by Tuesday,” he said, warning they would have to check into hotels if the rooms were not ready by then.

And yesterday, cyclist Travis Meyer and table tennis player Stephanie Sang, both from Australia, announced they would pull out following a string of other athletes who have decided to stay away, either because of health and security concerns or injuries.

The games, held every four years, bring together nearly 7,000 athletes and officials from 71 countries and territories across the former British empire.

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The games were meant to be a coming-out party for India to cement its reputation as a growing regional power.

Instead, its image has been battered by negative publicity about its frantic last-minute efforts to get ready for an event it knew it was hosting seven years ago. The games open on October 3.

Last week, a pedestrian bridge leading to the main stadium collapsed, and adding to the organisers’ woes, two tourists were shot and wounded outside one of New Delhi’s top attractions.

Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive Mike Hooper insists his organisation should not shoulder the blame for the problems, claiming repeated requests from the commission earlier in the year to speed up construction fell on deaf ears.

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“There were consistently missed deadlines. The government agencies have let everybody down over here as regards meeting those deadlines.

“But that said we have to make it the best it can be and that’s what we’re all hoping to do now.”

Forty eight English athletes from the hockey, lawn bowls and shooting teams are to move in today.

They will be followed by 36 more competitors from gymnastics, archery and weightlifting tomorrow.

England chef de mission Craig Hunter said: “It’s not perfect. The village had the potential to be five star, there’s no doubt about that. We’re at about three star at the moment.”

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