By Tom Degun

January 13 - Poznan Mayor Ryszard Grobelny (pictured second right) claims he is still confident of the Polish city being chosen to host the 2014 Summer Youth Olympics despite the International Olympic Committee (IOC) Evaluation Report released last week suggesting that Chinese city Nanjing are in pole position.


The report claimed that Nanjing presented "minimal risk to the IOC" while the other two candidates, who also include Mexico's Guadalajara, "present a number of risks to the IOC".

However, the IOC Evaluation Commission, headed by former world 200 metres champion Frankie Fredericks, made a number of highly positive comments towards Poland.

It said: "Poznan proposes a very compact concept and makes good use of existing venues and has a good level of experience in hosting international and multi-sport events and will host a number of events as part of the UEFA Euro Football Championships in 2012."

Such comments were clearly well received by Grobelny.

He said: "We are greatly encouraged by the analysis of our bid received from the Evaluation Commission and their understanding of the strong guarantees to our plans provided by the governments of this city, the region and the Polish national Government as well as the NOC (National Olympic Committee) including a guarantee against any budget shortfall.

"The Commission’s recognition of this city’s ability to host major sporting events and our understanding of the Culture and Education Programme gives us even greater confidence that Poznan would be able to host a truly spectacular Youth Olympic Games in 2014.

"We thank the Evaluation Commission for their impressive work and positive statements on our bid and very much look forward to presenting our exciting plans to the full IOC Membership in Vancouver next month."

Poznan and the two other host cities will present their final plans to all the IOC Members when they meet at the IOC Session in Vancouver on February 10, two days before the 2010 Winter Olympics are set to begin.

The first ever edition of the Summer Youth Olympic Games will be held in Singapore from 14 to 26 August 2010 while the first edition of the Winter Youth Olympic Games will be held in Innsbruck from 13 to 22 January 2012.

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