But Indian officials won't be celebrating just yet as only a third of scheduled tests have taken place so far.

Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) president Mike Fennell revealed there are 1,500 tests planned during the Games "and that target remains".

The CGF is responsible for testing the athletes, with the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) observing.

Fennell claimed the number of tests will increase with the number of finals because under the current testing regime, all medal winners are tested, while some are conducted randomly.

Fennell said: "That target [of 1,500 tests] remains valid as there are more and more medal events day by day.

"Up to yesterday more than 500 tests had been carried out and the results so far were all negative.

"That is a positive result!"

It is indeed a boost for the event, which has been plagued with news of stomach illnesses affecting some swimmers and near-empty stadiums across the city since competition began.

Fennell said that the distribution of tickets to fans to fill venues remains a priority.

"On attendance, it is not fully satisfactory," Fennell said.

"We will continue to exert pressure on the Organising Committee to see what can be done, whether it be sales or complimentary tickets to groups."

Fennell also commented on the issue of South African swimmer Roland Schoeman allegedly making racist remarks.

The freestyle specialist allegedly said: "It's unacceptable to be at a professional event like this and have people going on like monkeys."

Fennell said: "As far as the Commonwealth Games Federation is concerned, we do not tolerate improper and racist behaviour but this is a problem all over the world and it has to be stopped."

South Africa Chef de Mission Patience Shikwambana has moved to diffuse the potentially volatile issue though as he said there was a "misinterpretation of what he said".

Meanwhile, despite Fennell's concern over ticketing, Organising Committee general secretary Lalit Bhanot remains defiant on the issue of empty venues, stating that just over 946,000 of the 1.7 million tickets have been sold after nearly 55,000 were purchased yesterday.

He said: "Yesterday, 54,835 tickets were sold and a total of 946,206 have now been sold, so we are approaching one million sales.

"It is not true that the stadiums are empty.

"They are not completely full but they are not empty.

"A main problem is that most of the sponsors' guests [for whom tickets have been set aside] are not attending."

Not long after Bhanot's comments this morning, an amusing situation occurred at the main Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium as a stray dog, common on the streets of New Delhi, sauntered on to the track and into the infield, bringing hoots and roars of laughter from the crowd as workers tried to catch him.

"It's not an uncommon phenomenon," said International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) technical director Keith Davies, who attends track meets around the world.

"We've had dogs, we've had cats, foxes."

After roaming the track and evading two workers dispatched to shoo him away, the dog exited through a tunnel near the 100 metres starting line and disappeared.

Contact the writer of this story at [email protected]