Commonwealth Games 'must stay in Delhi'
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
LONDON, Mar 24 (AFP): Sebastian Coe, the chairman of the London 2012 Olympic Games, said Monday that next year's Commonwealth Games must be held as scheduled in New Delhi despite concerns regarding security in India.
This year's edition of cricket's lucrative Indian Premier League is being moved out of the country after the Indian government said security forces needed to be focused on the general elections scheduled for April-May, which clash with the tournament.
But Coe, one of Britain's greatest middle-distance runners and the 1,500 metres gold medallist at both the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and in Los Angeles four years' later, told www.insidethegames.com: "This is the world all big events live in. This was always going to be a challenge for India to organise.
"The Commonwealth Games went to New Delhi for absolutely the right reasons.''
"It's an extraordinary opportunity in an extraordinary country," added Coe, whose mother was half-Indian.
Coe, a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said leading sports bodies had to help nations such as India if major events were not to become the sole preserve of a privileged elite.
This year's edition of cricket's lucrative Indian Premier League is being moved out of the country after the Indian government said security forces needed to be focused on the general elections scheduled for April-May, which clash with the tournament.
But Coe, one of Britain's greatest middle-distance runners and the 1,500 metres gold medallist at both the 1980 Olympics in Moscow and in Los Angeles four years' later, told www.insidethegames.com: "This is the world all big events live in. This was always going to be a challenge for India to organise.
"The Commonwealth Games went to New Delhi for absolutely the right reasons.''
"It's an extraordinary opportunity in an extraordinary country," added Coe, whose mother was half-Indian.
Coe, a vice-president of the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) said leading sports bodies had to help nations such as India if major events were not to become the sole preserve of a privileged elite.