The headline in last the Hindustan Times reads "India on top of its Games" and spans two major stories - the second Test victory over Australia, and the latest Games medal gain which has taken India to within four medals of its target of 100.

The magical effectiveness of Sachin Tendulkar, who has scored 1,270 Test runs this year at an average of 97.69, is an infallible source of pride and joy for his nation.

Yet, three weeks ago, these Commonwealth Games seemed likely to provide India with little other than embarrassment.

Every major Games approaches its starting point with doubts and questions. Will the venues be finished on time? Will they be empty? Will the transport system hold up? Will security work well enough to ensure safety without tipping over into an obtrusive process which ruins the atmosphere of what should be a sporting celebration?

The period when the world's media have arrived and settled in an international event without having any sporting activity to divert them is traditionally the one in which criticism is at its most searching.

The criticisms poured out on Delhi as the chairman of the Organising Committee, Suresh Kalmadi - whose stewardship of a process teetering on the brink of chaos veered between the comic and the tragic – came face-to-face with the reality he appeared to have spent many months attempting to deny.

The Athletes' Village wasn't clean. Transport was fragmented and uncoordinated. The pedestrian bridge to the main stadium collapsed, badly injuring a number of workers. The timing equipment at the swimming venue was not established.

Preparations everywhere had been hindered still further by monsoons that had continued for longer than normal, and standing water alongside the Athletes' Village offered a breeding ground for mosquitos and a daytime threat of Dengue fever.

Officials with no working role at the Games were being offered transport and accommodation and prime tickets. There were reports that half of the 22,000 volunteers had taken their uniforms and walked, disillusioned. And on it went...

The only element that seemed to be firmly in place was that of security, as more than 100,000 soldiers and commandos policed every major hotel, checkpoint and Games venue in the face of terrorist threats. Something of a double-edge sword this, in PR terms.

As teams, and individual athletes wavered – and several individual athletes took independent decisions not to compete – it looked as if the Games actually might not go ahead in any coherent form, although there could never have been any question of them being halted given the investment of time and money and people that had already been put into them.



As the criticism grew harsher, the organising committee was forced to form an uneasy working partnership with officials from the Commonwealth Games Federation in order to salvage the whole enterprise.

But an event that spent months gathering increasingly bad publicity for a host of valid reasons has gradually emerged with increasing credit as problems with transport, information systems and ticketing have been belatedly but energetically addressed.

Woeful pictures of empty venues have been replaced by shots of seats which, if not always packed, contained significant numbers of genuinely appreciative spectators – or, when the Indian medals started to arrive – genuinely frantic spectators.

That process began with one of the oldest, but still one of the best, tricks in the book - namely the bussing in of youngsters for free. If anyone were in doubt about the nature of some of the early crowds, the fact that significant proportions were in matching red or yellow t-shirts offered confirmation.

But, nudged by CGF officials, and belaboured by the international and local press, the organising committee stirred into sensible activity, and ticket booths on the roads close to venues were clearly open for longer, and clearly allowing people to queue and then buy tickets. A startlingly simple idea, you might have thought.

At the centrepiece of the Games, the Jawharlal Nehru stadium, the atmosphere grew exponentially as Indian track and field athletes began to win medals, and then – for the first time since 1958 in Commonwealth Games track and field – gold medals.

I watched the women's 4x400m final on the final day of athletics amid a mass of people who were not officials, nor enthusiastic schoolchildren on a day out, but a pretty typical mix of sports followers.

As the last Indian runner brought the baton home in first place, people around me were leaping up and down, frantic with anticipation and then gratification.

There is no mistaking the sound of a proper sports audience reacting to a proper sporting event, and that sound was heard with increasing frequency as that great saving grace of any sporting gathering – sport – commanded attention.

In the end, India have something to celebrate – not least second place in the medal table behind Australia, and above England, with the target of 100 medals achieved.

The President of the CGF, Mike Fennell (pictured), was asked to address the question of whether the media should be blamed for exposing problems, or whether that process helped.

Fennell's answer was equivocal.

"Both," he said. "I felt the trivia received more attention than it should but it was important to expose some of the fundamental issues and it helped when those were exposed in the media.

"It helped us to get action going in certain areas, and I say that very sincerely. But I would be less than frank if I said some of the minor reports did not help because the public does not understand the dynamics of organisation."

Speaking at the final Commonwealth Games England presentation, the organisation's president Kelly Holmes had her own take on the dynamics of organisation.

"I think the Indian organisers will have learned a lot of valuable lessons from putting on these Games," she said. "The turnaround they have managed here is amazing. When something hasn't been right they have changed it at the click of their fingers.

"I think the problem Delhi had was mainly in its timing - they ran out of time, and weren't able to get the operational things right at the start as they would have liked to. As we have gone on that has changed.

"If we had started a week earlier I think everyone would have said these were the best Commonwealth Games there have been.

"I think it has emphasised that hosting a Games is a massive undertaking, and that the organising committee, and separate federations and the Government all have to work together. If they don't, that's when you get issues.

"I think these Games have elevated India to believe they can host other big events in future."

And that, of course, is the big question which remains as Delhi prepares for a closing ceremony to a Games that has changed in its nature more than any other I can recall attending in the last 25 years.

The 13th Commonwealth Games in Edinburgh began in a very poor atmosphere, with many African nations boycotting the event, and some even pulling out their teams as they prepared for the opening ceremony itself.

Edinburgh rallied, but it never soared in the way these Games have.

Kalmadi's statements about India wanting the 2020 Olympics appeared absurd a fortnight ago. But it is a measure of how far these Games have come that such a suggestion now merits some serious thought.

In truth, 2020 still seems an ambition too far. But if the rate of progress witnessed in Delhi during the last couple of weeks can persist, then that grand ambition may yet be realised, if not at the first time of asking, then maybe at the second or third.

The 19th Commonwealth Games looked likely to mark the beginning of the end of India's ambitions to host an Olympics. But they could yet turn out to be the end of the beginning.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames. New Delhi was the sixth Commonwealth Games he has covered, having attended his first at Edinburgh in 1986

As some of England's younger athletes played their part in a tumultuous night of athletics at the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium on Monday, a group of seven other young talents sat in the stands and watched.

And wondered.

When would it be their turn?

Dame Kelly Holmes, here in her capacity as President of Commonwealth Games England, has brought seven middle distance athletes from her On Camp With Kelly scheme out to Delhi to sample the atmosphere of a big multi-sport championship.

The idea is to familiarise them with the demands such an event can make, so that their minds will not be blown upon first encounter with the big time, as Holmes was when she went to the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria, Canada.

Earlier in the day, the group had spent the morning in the grounds of the India Institute of Technology, where they worked with a group of young athletes - and not particularly athletics-minded schoolgirls - in a fun-and-games training session.

Speaking to three of the group - 19-year-old Leigh Lennon, 18-year-old Rowena Cole and 21-year-old Emma Pallant, you are aware of slight ambiguity about the way they view their visit.

"It's bittersweet," said Pallant, a former world junior 1500 metres bronze medallist who earned her senior British international debut earlier this season at the European Team Championships.

"I had wanted to be here competing if possible.

"But at the same time it's great to be here to see what the atmosphere is like at a major championship.

"It makes me more hungry for it."

And that, as Holmes later points out, is partly the reason why these young women are here.

The group is about to watch the women's 800m final, where two athletes who have come up through the Aviva-sponsored OCWK scheme - Emma Jackson and Hannah England (pictured right) - ended up missing medals by a whisker.



Jackson finished fourth in a personal best of 2min 00.46sec, with England one position and one hundredth of a second behind her.

"This is Emma's first senior championship," Holmes said later, her voice hoarse from cheering at a wide variety of sporting venues in the city.

"To get a PB at the Commonwealth Games will definitely be of big benefit to her in future years.

"And the same for Hannah.

"Both of them have shown they have the natural talent.

"The challenge for them now is just having that mental conviction, is being able to say to themselves 'I can do it'.

"Hannah and Emma were part of the group who visited Melbourne in 2006.

"I think they got a lot out of that visit, and they came here unfazed by the whole experience.

"When I ran in my first Commonwealths at Victoria in 1994 I was amazed at the athletes' village.

"There was a dining hall the size of football pitches, and that incredible buzz of energy you get among competing athletes when they get together.

"I was like 'Oh my God.' But when I got to Atlanta in 96 I knew what to expect.

"Of the seven girls out here, three might have been at these Games if things had turned out a little differently.

"The 2012 Olympics are definitely going to be a target for some of them, and the 2014 Commonwealths in Glasgow will be for all of them."

Yep. There are the targets. 2012. 2014.

And then?

By the time the World Athletics Championships take place in 2015, the three athletes who have just shared some of their thoughts and appreciation of this trip they are on will be getting towards the peak of their careers.

Pallant will be 26, Lennon 24, Cole 23.

Those are the ages at which serious medals are often won.

And yet recent comments from the Minister for Sports and Olympics suggest considerable resistance to the idea of financially underwriting London's bid to bring those championships to the 2012 Olympic stadium.

The total would be £45 million, the amount of actual expenditure nearer to £25 million.

Compared to the £9 billion invested in the London 2012 Games, it's a negligible amount to pay for attracting an event that is only on a slightly lower footing than the Olympics or football's World Cup.

Robertson's take on the issue was curious: "If I have to make a choice between underwriting losses and funding elite athletes I will choose athletes every time."

A question for our Minister.

What is the point of elite athletes if they don't have an elite competition in which to perform?

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames and is providing regular reports from the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. These are his sixth Commonwealth Games, having covered his first at Edinburgh in 1986.

I'm not one to quickly hold my hands up when I'm in the wrong, but I must confess, I may have been a little premature in completely writing Delhi off when I first arrived here.

Sorry India.

But in my defence, when I landed in the city hosting the 19th Commonwealth Games, the place was simply like nothing I had ever witnessed before.

It was hot, dusty, dry and the traffic on the roads appeared to be moving in such a frantic and unpredictable manner I thought I would be lucky to go a day without seeing, or being the victim of, a serious traffic accident.

I also arrived in Delhi at the height of major security fears over the Games, an outbreak of the potentially fatal dengue fever and such worries over the venues that it was mooted the event may not even go ahead.

I had it in my head that I was determined not to like India - despite being half-Indian - so thinking of my beloved "green-old-England" to where I immediately wanted to return, I lashed out with a blog condemning Delhi and almost everything about the Commonwealth Games.

It drew a surprisingly sharp response in which I was described as everything from a "drunk" to a "racist".

I assure you, I am neither of the two (well, maybe the former on the occasional Saturday night out) but it was not entirely inaccurate for those who posted comments saying my "agenda is fixed" because to be fair, it probably was.

I was annoyed with those who defended Delhi and who criticised the media for giving Delhi negative coverage when I didn't see how we could ever put a positive spin on a bridge collapse, a filthy Athletes' Village or monumental delays in construction.

However, things here slowly began to turn around my perception of India and it started with the Indian people.

They are so charming, friendly and helpful that I feel almost awkward asking for anything as simple as directions as I know they will go out of their way to walk me to my destination, despite my protests, however far away.

They are also so welcoming and genuinely pleased to have you in their country that it is rather humbling.

The next thing I noticed was that for all the talk of high-profile boycotts, the competition wasn't all that bad.

The swimming event was about as elite as you could have asked for, with the double Beijing 2008 Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington picking up two gold medals, and the cycling road race was so spectacularly challenging in the baking conditions that even Isle of Man star Mark Cavendish could only manage seventh.

Yes, there was no Usain Bolt or Jessica Ennis and that is unfortunate but there was nonetheless world-class sport taking place in world-facilities.

Even the problems with the lack of spectators, which was actually probably the biggest worry in the end for the Games organisers, improved after the first couple of days, which is better late than never.

Other things about India were beginning to grow on me too such as the heat, which once I acclimatised to, I found rather pleasant.

I also began to realise that the lethal roads I had so despised during my first few days here actually had an intelligent system whereby each driver seems to know where the other one is coming from without looking.

Whether this is from the incessant beeping or whether it is because they are all telepathic I'm not sure, but I feel there is a secret code to driving safely on the crazy Indian roads that I am slowly beginning to crack.

Earlier this week, I met up with another Commonwealth Games supporter of Indian heritage in the form of London 2012 chairman Sebastian Coe.

Coe, whose Indian heritage isn't overly well known, was actually born to a half-Indian mother while his Indian grandparents owned a luxurious hotel right in the heart of New Delhi long before Sebastian was even though of.

Coe had said before the Games: "I'm half-Indian and I'm very proud the Commonwealth Games are going to be in that country.

"I think when athletes and spectators get there they will find it an extremely hospitable environment and I think they will fall in love with India.

"I really want this to work and I see no reason why ultimately it shouldn't."

I think maybe he might have seen something the rest of us hadn't in that once you get to know India, you really do soon learn love it and value it as an amazing place."

However, there is one person in particular that I have taken to more than most and bizarrely, he is the man I thought was, and perhaps still is, the villain of the piece.

I refer of course to Suresh Kalmadi (pictured), chairman of the Organising Committee.

Kalmadi was the man blamed for everything that went wrong in Delhi, but having sat though around 10 press conferences with him in the last two weeks, he kind of strikes me as an Indian Jose Mourinho.

I say this because like the "special one", he has a charming smile, outrageous arrogance and the ability to make you laugh at will with a ridiculous comment.

But the thing I like most about Kalmadi is his refusal to admit that anything is wrong or confess there were ever any problems in hosting the Commonwealth Games.

One journalist asked him: "Are you worried about the ticketing problems and spectators not turning up to the event."

He responded: "There are no ticketing problems, we have hundreds of spectators flocking in and everything is fine."

Another enquired: "Why did no one turn up to watch the road race - were security stopping them?"

He responded: "There were many spectators and security here is fantastic."

Another said: "How did you feel being booed at the Opening Ceremony?"

"I wasn't booed - everyone was cheering for me because India loves me!"

And so on.

He rarely actually answers a straight question asked of him and less so provides honest answers, but you have to hand it to him - he's pure box-office.

Like marmite, you love him or hate him and I must admit that I been converted to a lover of India's man of the moment.

Comedy aside, Kalmadi has in fact, and against the odds, delivered a Games which has improved the infrastructure in Delhi, provided the city with much-needed world class sporting facilities and, far from devaluing the Commonwealth brand, has put an event that was in danger of losing relevance back on the map and making front and back page headlines despite its biggest stars being absent.

Any news is good news, as they say.

There has also been no outbreak of dengue fever, no problems with the Athletes' Village and no security problems regarding terrorist attacks, so in that regard, maybe there is a case for the media blowing things slightly out of proportion because things ran rather smoothly.

The legacy from this event, Kalmadi dreams, could be the 2020 Olympics.

Still a bit of a long-shot I think but I would like that to happen and I'd love to come back to India for it.

Like Kalmadi, the city has converted me into a fan with its colour, its vibrancy and superb hospitality.

They will certainly be the underdogs to host a 2020 Games but don't count this completely crazy yet wonderful city out.

And certainly don't bet against the force of nature that is Suresh Kalmadi being chairman of the Organising Committee for the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics.

Stranger things have happened but perhaps not involving anyone quite as strange as India's "special one".

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames and is covering the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi

At Wembley tomorrow tonight, England’s footballers take on Montenegro in a Euro 2012 qualifier.

Improbably enough, it is the visitors who head the group with three wins out of three - pretty remarkable given that the country declared independence just four years ago and, at some 5,000 square miles, is a touch smaller than Northern Ireland and a touch bigger than Death Valley National Park.

As star player Mirko Vucinic and his team-mates pursue their dream tonight at one of world sport’s most famous venues, spare a thought for the sportsmen and women of Kosovo, another (Jamaica-sized) fragment of the former Yugoslavia, most of whom are still waiting to represent their state in international competition, even though its independence is recognised by some 70 other countries.

Like I suspect most followers of elite sport, it had never actually occurred to me that this place, so prominent in newspaper headlines 11 years ago, was still effectively excluded from vast swathes of international competition.

That it has occurred to me now is thanks to a lengthy email I received last week from a very senior member of Kosovo’s sports establishment.

This is the situation as explained to me in that email:

The Kosovan Olympic Committee is not yet recognised by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

For that to happen, my interlocutor says, as a first condition, at least five Kosovan national sports associations must have been accepted as members of their respective international sports federations (IFs).

To date, he says, Kosovo has two fully-recognised federations - table tennis and weightlifting.

Next up may be archery since, he says, the Kosovan Archery Federation is "provisionally recognised" and should become a full member at the next assembly.

Kosovan athletes from four other sports - handball, wrestling, skiing and judo - are, he says, allowed to take part in some international events, though these national associations are not, as yet, recognised by the relevant IFs.

Once recognised by five Olympic sports, the next hurdle to IOC membership, he says - and this has been confirmed to me by a senior IOC figure - is for Kosovo’s independence to be recognised by the international community, in effect the United Nations.

Despite a recent opinion by the International Court of Justice that Kosovo’s declaration of independence was not in violation of international law, and despite its recognition by scores of countries, this seems to be taking an inordinately long time.

In the meantime, Kosovo’s elite athletes must wait – and, as a result, argues my correspondent, are "the only athletes in Europe and maybe the world who are totally isolated".

One point I did see fit to quiz him on, given the region’s recent history, is whether Kosovan Serbs would be welcome in the nation’s international teams.

He assures me that they would.

Provided that this undertaking was genuinely reflected in selection policy, I can see no good reason why the present situation, which seems grossly unfair to Kosovan athletes, should be allowed to endure - even if full UN recognition remains a delicate issue.

The dream of everyone in Kosovo, I am told, is to see their athletes competing at the Olympic Games in London in 2012.

That may be exaggerating, ever so slightly, for rhetorical effect.

But why should potentially world-class athletes be deprived of the chance to pit their skills against the global elite purely because of the accident of where they were born?

How long, I wonder, before Kosovo’s football team takes on England at Wembley?

David Owen is a specialist sports journalist who worked for 20 years for the Financial Times in the United States, Canada, France and the UK. He ended his FT career as sports editor after the 2006 World Cup and is now freelancing, including covering the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2010 World Cup. Owen’s Twitter feed can be accessed at www.twitter.com/dodo938

I’ve even seen the 19th edition of the event a Canadian named Bobby Robinson energised into being 80 years ago described as The Tentative Games.

At least, according to the notice displayed in the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium’s press room, indicating a “Tentative Games schedule”.

The Tentative Games could be quite charming.

Hesitant starts in the 100 metres.

Dabbing badminton shots.

Toes dipped gingerly into water in the swimming events.

(Eugh! That is cold!)

But I digress.

The 1930 Empire Games in Hamilton got under way with a statement of intent that Robinson had approved.

Compared to the Olympic Games, these Games "should be merrier and less stern and will substitute the stimulus of novel adventure for the pressure of international rivalry".

So if these Games don’t match up to Olympic or world standards all over the place, it really doesn’t matter – at least, it didn’t matter to Robinson and his colleagues.

But as it has turned out in the space of the past week, these Games do match up to Olympic or world standards in certain sports, certain events.

The tennis tournament may be taking place without the benefit of anyone in the world’s top 100, but the table tennis tournament contains Singapore, who have displaced China as the world champions.

The gymnastics may be lacking England and Canada’s top selections, as preference is being given to the World Championships which start soon after these Games finish.

But the swimming competition involves swathes of the world’s finest swimmers from England, Australia, South Africa and Canada.

The athletics competition here is the Games in microcosm, a patchwork of world class and threadbare events.

What can happen quite often is that competitors are presented with fields so limited that they are overwhelming favourites.

Which can create its own pressure.

In the men’s hammer competition, for instance, the South African, Christiaan Harmse (pictured), had thrown almost eight metres further than anyone else in the event, but he had to wait until his sixth and final throw to claim the gold.

It is a fair bet his overwhelming emotion as he did so was relief.

And that was exactly what suffused Andy Turner’s face as he won the race that was his to lose in the Nehru Stadium tonight, the 110 metres hurdles.

Turner’s year started on a high as he won the European title, but he hit reality checkpoint soon after as he encountered the affable, mountainous David Oliver at Crystal Palace.

Oliver has got within two hundredths of Dayron Robles’ world record of 12.87sec this year, and has made a habit of running sub-13 second races this season.

For Turner, that is territory beyond his current bounds, as he discovered in front of his home crowd at what was one of his regular training venues.

But these Games offered him a chance to round off his season with a golden glow.

A very good chance.

Twelve years ago another English high hurdler found himself in a similar position.

Tony Jarrett was a world class athlete who had the misfortune to be in the same event at the same time as a slightly better world class athlete, Colin Jackson.

The Welshman had won the two previous Commonwealth titles, each time beating Jarrett.

But this time Jackson was absent - this was Jarrett’s big chance.

He won. But his performance was excruciating to watch, especially for those who were willing him to earn a tangible reward for his manifest talent.

Turner (pictured) managed his golden opportunity with less angst, having enough time to wave his right arm in the air before he crossed the line ahead of team-mates William Sharman and Lawrence Clarke.

The winner was calm.

Accepting a flag of St George from a photographer, he draped it over his shoulders and held it aloft, as you do when you’ve won something in athletics.

But he seemed in no hurry to do a lap of honour.

By this time, the performances of the five men who dipped on the line for bronze had been sifted, and the name of Lawrence Clarke appeared on the scoreboard directly under those of Turner and Sharman.

It was as if someone had plugged the 20-year-old University of Bath student into the mains.

He bounced. He jumped. He yelled. He ran over to Turner.

I would suggest it was a perfect example of “the stimulus of novel adventure”.

Tentatively.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames and will be providing regular reports from the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. These will be his sixth Commonwealth Games, having covered his first at Edinburgh in 1986.

In a half century of sportswriting I have met and interviewed countless personalities, from Muhammad Ali downwards.

But I have never been more moved, or enthralled, by the poignant tale which came from the lips of an amazing woman sitting in a wheelchair across the table from me this week.

Her name is Martine Wright, and this is her quite astonishing story, which began on July 7, 2005, the morning after London had secured victory over Paris for the 2012 Olympic Games.

It was the dreadful morning when 52 people died in the terrorist atrocities which struck across London - eight of the fatalities on the Circle Line tube train at Aldgate in which Martine was one of the worst-injured survivors, losing both her legs.

But since then she has married, had a child, become a pilot and completed a parachute jump.

Now, even more remarkably this bright, spirited daughter of a retired London cabbie is poised to return to the Olympic heartland in East London - where she was born within the sound of Bow Bells 38 years ago - as a member of the British team.

How bitter-sweet the irony then, that it is because London won the bid to host the Games that she now finds herself in that wheelchair.

The night before had been spent celebrating London’s triumph with work colleagues in Docklands and she overslept, catching a train 20 minutes later than usual.

It was to prove fateful, for sitting just three feet away was the suicide bomber Shehzad Tanweer.

She recalls: "The last thing I remember before the bomb went off was jumping up and down that night watching the big screen and thinking - ‘this is fantastic, I’d love to be there but I doubt I’ll be able to get a ticket.’"

We were chatting in the cafeteria of Roehampton University in South London where she drives herself from her specially modified bungalow in Tring, Hertfordshire, to train with the GB sitting volleyball squad twice a week.

It is just across the road from the Queen Mary Hospital where she had spent eight months rebuilding her body, and her life, appropriately in the Douglas Bader ward, for she has since learned to fly light aircraft -winning a scholarship to South Africa to do so - as well as to ski again on a mono-bob.
 
Painstakingly she told of the horror of that summer morning.

"I was sitting in a corner seat reading my paper and talking to people around me.

"Suddenly I wasn’t talking to them any more.

"There was a blinding white flash.

"It felt like I was being shaken from side to side and smacked on the head with a saucepan.

"It was weird. Then it was just black devastation.

"Initially I thought we had crashed.

"I was thrown around 90 degrees and the metal casing from the carriage where the bomb had exploded was twisted and tangled in my legs.

"Everyone was screaming.

"A man behind me had been electrocuted by live wires hanging from the roof.

"Then someone who turned out to be an off-duty policewoman saved my life.

"I was saying to her, ‘My name’s Martine Wright‘.

"Can you tell my mum and dad I’m OK?’

"She gave me a belt and said, ‘Put this round your left leg’.

"I thought at the time it was like a scene from a western film when someone had been shot.

"By then the screaming had stopped because everyone else had been evacuated, or was dying.

"I was the last person in the carriage and the paramedics had to cut me out.

"A small miracle saved me that day."

At this point Martine’s eyes filled and she began to cry.

Five years on, and the hurt, emotionally, if not physically, remains etched indelibly and understandably in the consciousness.

"I’m sorry," she said.

"It’s hard talking about it even now.

"But why I say it’s a miracle is because I could have been sat somewhere else, even further away from the bomber, and been killed.

"I think I was cushioned a bit in that corner.

"I lost 10 pints of blood and was told I had to be revived five times on the operating table.

"I was in a coma for 10 days.

"My family and my boyfriend Nick [now her husband] didn’t know where I was for almost two days, I had no identification on me.

"My family were going round all the hospitals but no one knew anything.

"Finally at midnight the following day they turned up at the Royal London again and insisted I must be there.

"I haven’t asked my mum and dad what was going on in their minds.

"It’s still a dark place for them.

"All I know is that they were put in this room for families who had loved ones missing.

"Eventually they were told there were three survivors, two women and a man.

"By then the police knew who I was because I had been reported missing and they had been to my flat and got DNA from my hairbrush.

"But someone still had to identify me.

"My brother and sister went into the room but they said, ‘It’s not her‘.

"They said later they couldn’t recognise me because my body was about twice its size and the colour of my skin had changed.

"But the police knew it was me and asked for my mum and dad to go in and my mum then said she recognised me from my eyebrows.

"My legs had already been amputated above the knee and I also nearly lost my arm.

"When I woke up, all I remember is looking down at the bed sheets and there was nothing there.

"I burst into tears, crying, ‘I’ve got no legs’.

"My mum cuddled me, saying, ‘You are still here, you are still Martine and you can get new legs‘."

Following the double amputation Martine learned how to walk again using prosthetic legs each weighing a stone.

But she says sport was the catalyst to her astonishing recovery.

"When I lost my legs I needed a goal.

"Before I got into the rat race in London [she was a marketing manager at an international on-line company] I was quite sporty.

"I played netball at school and hockey at university.

"I’ve always been intensely competitive and there is no doubt that sport motivated me in my rehabilitation."

Two years ago she attended a try-out day for Paralympic sport at Stoke Mandeville.

"I started with wheelchair tennis but it was this comparatively new sport of sitting volleyball that really attracted me.

"What I like about it is that you are not in a chair, which is fantastic because I am not paralysed.

"I can move - in fact I can move very fast.

"Also, I am very much a team person.

"There are about 16 of us in the squad and they are a great bunch of girls, some of them amputees, some with lesser disabilities.

"But just as I was getting into it, I got pregnant and didn’t play for a year.

"After my son was born, I heard they were trying to put a women’s team together for 2012 and our first international was actually in the world championships in Oklahoma."

By chilling coincidence the day she flew out was July 7 this year - it was also the date Oscar had been due last year but he was a week late.
 
"We had only had a GB team for eight months but we really surprised ourselves by getting some results.

"We actually won against Canada who had been together for three years.

"Basically the rules are the same as in standing volleyball, though the net is lower.

"You have to keep your bottom on the floor all the time and shuffle along.

"You are constantly moving.

"I still can’t believe, two years away, that I could be part of the greatest sporting event this country has ever seen in the city where I was born.

"But sport has healed me and this is the goal I can grasp."

Martine has now succeeded Sir Geoff Hurst as ambassador for Typhoo Sport for All, a project which is helping to make sport more accessible for the disabled.

"Now I am meeting other potential Paralympians and seeing how sport can help you through trauma."

With 2012 looming, Nick, also 38, an award-winning landscape photographer, is going part-time next year to help look after their son while Martine concentrates on achieving her golden goal.

They married in 2008 and Oscar is now 14 months.

She adds: "For a while, all my thoughts about London were negative but now to be able to go back and do something so positive, well, it’s like a dream.

"If someone had said to me five years ago when I woke up in that hospital bed without my legs that I would become a mum, fly a plane and be part of 2012 I’d have said they were off their rocker."

Too often these days sport leaves sour taste in the mouth with its increasing infestation by cheats, crooks, philanderers, the avaricious and the incompetent.

An hour or so spent in the company of Martine Wright puts all of this into heartwarming perspective.

The Typhoo Sports for All campaign aims to increase participation in sport and ensure disabled people can access the sport or physical activity of their choice.

For more information click here.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire.

The evening’s athletics is under way in oppressive heat in the Jawaharlal Nehru stadium.

The track, partially re-laid in the wake of the destructive forces brought to bear upon it during the Opening Ceremony, has the blotchy look of an unfortunate skin condition.

Sprint races have been starting from lane two, leaving the much abused inside lane alone.

The turfed infield, unfurled, literally, less than 24 hours before events got under way, makes even Wembley look very, very good in comparison.

The stadium is fuller than it was in last night’s opening session, when about one hundredth of the 60,000 capacity was required.

Almost every one of those first nighters had departed by the time the medal ceremony for the 5,000m was held after the kind of race that gives the Commonwealth Games a good name.

When Kenya’s former world champion Eliud Kipchoge and Uganda’s Moses Kipsiro ran shoulder to shoulder the length of the home straight, the Kenyan becoming increasingly wild-eyed at his inability to break the man whose faced seemed composed in determination.

Kipchoge has run the fastest 5,000m in the world this year – 12min 51.21sec – and Kipsiro has finished fourth in the last Olympics and World Championships.

It was an unmistakeable world class offering.

But when both stood proudly at their medal ceremony they did so in an empty stadium.

When his name was announced, Kipchoge, upon instinct, raised his arms in the air.

There was not a sound in response.

It was the same tonight when the shot putters received their medals.



Earlier today, England’s synchronised swimming duet of Jenna Randall and Olivia Allison took silver despite the fact that the speaker relaying their music underwater failed halfway through their routine.

The English men’s compound archery team, attempting to secure gold against the home nation, had to take their final, crucial shots against a background of high spirited whistling from a group of the youngsters who have been bussed in to fill the stands at numerous venues in the wake of a ticketing policy which has demonstrably failed.

Many such championships have adopted a similar policy to fill embarrassing gaps in the stands.

Why not, if you can’t sell sufficient tickets?

It’s an exciting and inspiring experience for the youngsters, and it does lift the atmosphere, even though there is a history of bussed-in crowds applauding at all the wrong times and moments.

On this occasion it was just high spirits.

But it could have been critical to three men who have devoted years of their life to making sure that such moments go as close to perfectly as possible, and who eventually prevailed to win the gold.

Meanwhile doubts swirl around the steady numbers of athletes succumbing to upset tummies or fevers, with swimmers from numerous countries appearing to be particularly badly affected.

Assurances have been sought, and given, over the quality of the water at the swimming venue.

But if it’s not that, then what is it?

Are swimmers particularly prone to such ailments?

All this week the media have been creating about the results service, which ranged from fitful to non-existent.

Poor dears. Who cares?

But beyond the fulminating journalists are many thousands of followers of this event – some of them friends and relatives of those taking part – who would like to be informed.

These are relatively small mismanagements.

But it was one of so many here at a Games where those on the ground are having to work desperately to make good on the mistakes made over a long period of time by those on high.

As the Organising Committee and Commonwealth Games Federations officials grit their teeth and agree to try and get along for the good of the event, there is a sense of improvement.

But also a sense that these Games could have been so much better with just a little more forethought, a little more organisation, a little more willingness to learn from the mistakes others have made, to accept templates that have been created over many years.

It is too late for that now. What will continue to lift these Games is the friendliness and Delhi’s people, and the eager willingness of the young volunteers who have remained following the reported walkout of almost half of the 22,000 volunteers originally engaged.

In the stadium last night there was one small example of how such efforts can change the atmosphere as a team of these young volunteers literally ran around all night trying to provide the world’s gathered press with hard copy results.

They succeeded.

But the biggest thing in Delhi 2010’s favour is the simple, inexorable forward role of sporting events.

Every new drama creates its own glow.

And especially, the Indian triumphs, in shooting and wrestling, generate national pride of the kind so astonishingly stirred by the country’s cricketers earlier in the week.

This is what was envisaged when Delhi bid for these Games.

This is where the pay-off comes.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames and will be providing regular reports from the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. These will be his sixth Commonwealth Games, having covered his first at Edinburgh in 1986.

Over the past half century, professionalism has slowly engulfed athletics.

It was once the bastion of amateurism, but now Usain Bolt pockets upwards of $250,000 (£157,000) in appearance fees per competition as the face of the sport.

Next month’s New York City Marathon now guarantees $800,000 (£504,000) in prize money along with additional appearance fees and bonuses.

The world’s other top marathons hover in the same territory, with the Dubai event entering seven-figure territory.

However, not every sport is rolling in money.

The hammer throw has been left behind - that became painfully clear this summer.

As the stars of track and field earned tens of thousands of dollars in front of internationally-televised audiences on the Diamond League circuit, the world’s best hammer throwers were fighting it out to win $2,000 (£1,260) first place prizes in front of a few hundred fans.

And, unlike other track and field disciplines, the hammer was left out of both the new Diamond League and the IAAF’s World Challenge series.

In the alternative, the IAAF set up a makeshift series of competitions for hammer throwers offering $200,000 (£126,000) for the entire season - an amount that totals less than half the prize money of a single Diamond League meeting.

Olympic hammer throw finalists must continue to be amateurs in many ways, and are often forced to schedule time off of work to attend competitions or navigate the politics of their national federation to secure supplemental funding.

While the Diamond League snub was a wake up call to hammer throwers, it was hardly the beginning of the event’s troubles.

As professionalism has grown in athletics, marginal events have been pushed to the side to increase marketability.

Due to time constraints, the decathlon has long been excluded from the grand prix circuit.

Non-stadia events such as the marathon and race walk have had their own established circuits.

More recently, the 10,000 metres run has begun to disappear as the 30-minute long competition often lacks real action and drama until the final laps.

This year, only a handful of elite 10,000m races took place and the world’s best time was produced on the roads, an unheard of state of affairs. (Luckily, most elite 10,000m runners do not struggle for money as they are often competitive at shorter or longer distances as well.)

The rationale for alienating the hammer throw is not so simple.

A handful of reasons are trotted out to explain its decline.

In its Diamond League press release, the IAAF cited "infrastructure" reasons.

While no clarification was provided, it likely meant that: (1) there was not enough time in the schedule to include all the throwing events; (2) that the powerful football clubs have been complaining more about field divots caused by the hammer; and (3) combined with potential safety concerns the hammer throw was the odd one out.

Each of these concerns can often be explained away.

Others list the reason as the lack of stars in Western Europe, but the same is true in the 100m and distance races that still remain wildly popular at the top meetings.

Or perhaps the cause is a decline in youth participation?

But the same problem exists in America where youth participation has more than doubled in the past decade.

Whatever the cause, it is clear the event no longer has the political power required to get the support of the sport’s decision makers.

In order to get the event featured, hammer throwers must show how they can help athletics grow.

In this regard, the hammer throw could learn from its sibling, the shot put.

This could likely have been in the same position, but the event’s mobility has had the opposite effect.

The shot only requires 25m of open space and a concrete circle so it is a perfect marketing tool for the sport.

This season, the event has been paraded as a pre-meet outreach tool for the Diamond League with headline competitions taking place in Stockholm’s city centre and the Zurich main train station.

Add in some energising world class stars and you get a memorable impression that leaves meets hosting the shot put even when it is not in their scheduled programme.



While the hammer throw is not as mobile, it also has some unique offerings.

Chiefly, it is a mesmerising event to watch.

The combination of raw power, rhythm and balletic grace shown by the world’s best is truly a spectacle to watch in person.

I train next to a large football practice facility in Zurich and every day a handful of young footballers will stop to watch the hammer, often asking questions or wanting to pick up the implement.

The discus throwers at my club rarely get that much attention.

The problem is, without having the event at big meets, people don’t see it and demand it at future competitions, creating a catch-22.

It is up to the event to get the ball rolling and introduce more and more people to the hammer throw on its own.

It is not easy, but can be done on a grassroots scale.

It definitely helps that some of the best women of all time are producing world records every year and the most entertaining head-to-head battles in our sport.

The fact that the athletics bigwigs couldn’t care less about the hammer throw may be to its advantage, allowing it to showcase what it wants and develop its own plan.

Mary Wittenberg, director of the New York City Marathon and CEO of the New York Road Runners, felt that this was actually the key to her marathon’s success when she told RunnersWorld.com last week: "Track and field historically was never very interested in road running, and that’s what allowed road running to explode on its own.

"So I think you could argue that has been a good thing.

"The decentralisation allowed many races to bloom and grow.

"Now I hope we can pool our common dreams while respecting all the owners of races and programs at all the different levels."

There are already some great throws-only competitions out there.

For instance, a German meeting in the small town of Fränkisch-Crumbach draws huge crowds and the world’s best throwers every year just to watch the hammer throw.

These events are the type that will push our sport forward.

Organising and coordinating similar efforts across Europe and the globe will be the next step to recovery.

Martin Bingisser is the current Swiss champion in the hammer throw and serves as President of the Evergreen Athletic Fund, an organisation that promotes the throwing events through its network of websites and by financially supporting elite athletes.  In addition, he regularly writes about athletics, training, and the hammer throw on his website www.mbingisser.com

Alarm bells are ringing in the offices of sports bodies up and down the UK as rumours persist that the Culture Secretary Jeremy Hunt is about to impose swingeing cuts in an attempt to boost his career and gain a place on the Government’s Ministerial committee deciding on departmental cuts, the so-called "star chamber".

It has been reported that while the Minister for Sport and the Olympics Hugh Robertson is fighting sport’s corner, Hunt is likely to favour the culture and media sectors of his portfolio and savagely cut the funding of sport.

Given that the Department of Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS) typically receives a very small budget compared to many Government departments, any cuts could seriously undermine the future of sport in this country, an important by-product of which is also the nation’s health.

Undoubtedly some savings could be made by reducing the duplication of work and streamlining the structure that delivers sport through implementing vertical integration of strategies where currently only horizontal planning takes place. However the cuts Hunt is believed to be in favour of will go much deeper.

How much deeper? It has been reported that Hunt is considering cutting funding to sport by 40 per cent.

In real terms what does 40 per cent mean? Using Sport England as an example, they received £123 million ($195 million) of Exchequer funding for the current financial year. A 40 per cent reduction in that figure would reduce it to £73.2 million ($115.8 million), a loss of £49.2 million ($77.8 million) to the development of grass-roots sport in England. That is almost double the annual contribution to the entire County Sports Partnership network!

Cuts will, of course, need to be made but surely the role of the Culture Secretary is to treat each section of his portfolio as an equal partner while making the case to the Exchequer to keep cuts to a minimum?

If reports are correct and Hunt is about to sacrifice sport for his career then the Prime Minister should examine the actions of Hunt, believed to be a Cameron favourite, closely.

If he is not fully committed to working in the best interests of his entire department then surely he should be replaced by someone who will serve those interests.

And if he is putting his ambition to become a member of the "star chamber" ahead of the demands of his appointed role then he should not be considered a suitable candidate for either.

Of course, in the foggy world of politics there is another way to interpret the story.

Should cuts be lower than the feared 40 per cent, let’s say a still draconian 30 per cent, will we have been conned into believing we got a good result? The story also portrays Sports Minister Robertson as someone well-regarded within sport, yet that is not the opinion of all as we still await evidence of the improvements in the structure and delivery of sport promised prior to and during the General Election suggesting the story could be a means to improve his image.

D-Day is October 20. In the meantime, British sport is holding its collective breath.

Jim Cowan is a former athlete, coach, event organiser and sports development specialist who is the founder of Cowan Global, a company specialising in consultancy, events and education and training. For more details click here

At the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium tonight you had, on the one hand, this: 7,500 security personnel, more than 350 CCTV cameras, 90 checkpoints - with outer, middle, inner and exclusion zones - defence helicopters with commandos doing an aerial recce, three unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV), eighty radiation meters to detect...well, an atomic attack, I suppose.

And on the other hand, you had this: smiling young faces, excitement, dancing, music, teams parading who would all test positive for natural exuberance (with a special word here for the South Africans, many of whom tootled away merrily on the instrument which became world famous - or world-infamous - in the World Cup, the vuvuzela).

Therein lies the paradox of the modern opening ceremony.

Eighty years ago, this competition made its debut in Hamilton, Ontario, The Toronto Star report of 1930 opening ceremony describes "Four hundred athletes from the British Empire, the first coming together of its kind in history, paraded here before a big crowd this afternoon to open the British Empire Games...Newfoundland’s eight men in claret blazers, piped with white, had the honour - as representatives of the oldest colony – of leading the long procession. As they marched round the track they got a big hand."

Eighty years on, the arrival of the 7,000 athletes taking part in the latest version of these Games drew the same basic, supportive response from a big crowd - 60,000 filled the stadium which will form the centrepiece to the 19th Commonwealth Games.

So here was the English team, led by badminton’s Olympic silver medallist and world champion Nathan Robertson (pictured) waving the flag of St George with unmistakeable pleasure. Back in England, Robertson’s 12-year-old daughter was watching on TV with his parents, having had a themed Indian party with curry as the main meal.

Behind him, athletes marched in a state of excitement, holding their video cameras aloft. The mind’s eye is no longer sufficient to record such occasions.

And here, finally, to a predictable tumult of approbation, was the Indian team, all 620 of them, tasked with earning at least 100 medals and finishing second in the overall table, two places higher than they managed in Melbourne four years ago.

According to the commentators, the "oldest democracy in the world" was looking forward to doing "exceedingly well".

Once the teams had settled down into their seats it was time to get onto the business end of the ceremony as the Queen’s Baton, sent on its way down the Mall last year, arrived after a passage through all 71 competing nations.

"And now, ladies and gentlemen," intoned the stadium announcer, "the Commonwealth Games baton, which has travelled through many countries, will be brought into the stadium."

Earlier in the evening, television had shown the Prince of Wales and his wife, the Duchess of Cornwall, arriving at the stadium. As he emerged from his sleek black limousine, the Prince adopted his default mode of faint bemusement, as if the task he was being called upon to perform was slightly irregular but he had decided to press on in a spirit of good humour.

Now he stood at the podium, ready to receive the baton, which he placed in its holder alongside his lecturn, only to have it re-adjusted by an official.

He proceeded to pass on the message of goodwill that his mother had placed inside the baton, which expressed the following sentiment: "I firmly believe that when countries can compete in sport together like this it serves as an inspiration to all nations to work together for peace throughout the world."

The message concluded: "I send my very best wishes for what I hope will be the experience of a lifetime."

The Queen may be right in her judgement. But if these Games can manage to transform the image of Delhi from a city which has asked for a responsibility it is not quite able to manage into one which has succeeded in a high ambition, she may prove to be wrong.



The comments on the eve of the opening ceremony from the International Olympic Committee President Jacques Rogge that a successful Games could strengthen India’s ambition - or at least India’s ambition as expressed by the irrepressible if much maligned chairman of their Organising Committee, Suresh Kalmadi - to host an Olympic Games.

Earlier in the evening, Kalmadi had received a massively mixed reaction upon being introduced to the crowd. Judging that there were cheers amongst the boos and whistling, our chairman, dressed in thick military garb with a rainbow of medal ribbons across his left chest, half rose to acknowledge the reaction with a tentative wave before settling back into his VIP seat and mopping his brow with a large handkerchief. His speech later made reference to his mother and father - his two greatest - or his two - supporters.

As for Rogge - thinking about it, what else could he have announced? "It doesn’t matter how well India do here, they’ve got no chance." I think not.

Having said that, this is one of the world’s great cultures. And should Delhi manage to pull these Games out of the fire, if the timing equipment at the swimming venue is installed in time, if the info system manages to provide info, if no prominent athletes fall prey to Cobras or dengue fever, if the natural energy of national triumphs starts to dominate the proceedings as it should - then, maybe it is a serious proposition.

If.

Mike Rowbottom, one of Britain's most talented sportswriters, has covered the last five Summer and four Winter Olympics for The Independent. Previously he has worked for the Daily Mail, The Times, The Observer, the Sunday Correspondent and The Guardian. He is now chief feature writer for insidethegames and will be providing regular reports from the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi. These will be his sixth Commonwealth Games, having covered his first at Edinburgh in 1986.

When the Commonwealth Games get under way in Delhi this weekend they will be the first I have missed in 40 years, thanks to a pending knee operation.

"Aren’t you glad not to be going to this one?" is a question I am inevitably and frequently asked.

Actually no.

I’d love to be there despite the dire warnings of them being a chaotic mess, of being stricken with dengue fever or kidnapped or blown to smithereens by terrorists.

While I am well aware of the risks and the dangers, I also know that the likelihood of a major catastrophe is remote - and if something of this nature did happen I’d want to be there to report it, as I was the atrocity that befell the Munich Olympics in 1972. It goes with the territory.

Having survived the mayhem that was the Rumble in the Jungle in 1974 – and believe me it really was in the jungle, just outside Kinshasa the crime-ridden capital of then Zaire (whose President Mobutu publicly hanged 40 of the city’s most notorious criminals before the Ali-Foreman fight as warning to would-be muggers and pickpockets) - a touch of Delhi belly would seem a small price to pay.

This is not to make light of the problems that have surrounded the shambolic build-up to these Games and for that I believe a lax Commonwealth Games Federation are as much to blame as the corruption to which the Indian government seems to have turned an uncaring eye.

But I doubt whether Delhi will be as horrendous as most expect once the running, jumping, splashing and sploshing get under way.

Delhi 2010 won’t be perfect, but it will be be all right on the night

Such sporting happenings always are.

When we look at global events through history the anticipation has been far worse than the realisation.

"There will be those who die,” the late Chris Brasher famously prophesied in print before the Mexico Olympics because of the rarified air at high altitude.

Well no-one did, At least, not any competitor.

Scores of demonstrating students were killed beforehand, machine-gunned from helicopters by militia while protesting in the square called the Place of the Three Cultures.

But that was another story, and one which the International Olympic Committee, led by dictatorial president Avery Brundage, shamefully underplayed at the time, as it could be argued they did the 1972 Munich tragedy, halting those Games for just one day after the massacre of 11 Israelis by the Black September Palestinian terrorists.

I recall at the time, as a young reporter watching the tragic events unfold, and asking the Evening Standard’s seasoned Cockney scribe Walter Bartleman, a former Army tank major, what to do.

"My advice to you, son," he muttered, "is keep, your bleedin’ head down."

The reason I do not think there will be another terrorist attack in Delhi is precisely because one is expected, as it has been at every significant international sports meet since Munich.

A top security adviser to the IOC once pointed out to me that terrorism is about the element of surprise. Militants strike where it is least expected, not where it is.

Of course, this does not lessen the necessity for the tightest security or preclude the odd nutter or splinter group doing something daft.

The best security in the world cannot cater for that, as witnessed at the Atlanta Olympics of 1996.

But security in Delhi will be paramount. as it was in Melbourne, Manchester and every Commonwealth Games in the last three decades.

There is also a misconception about the "Friendly Games",  that they are simply just a sporting sideshow, a village fete free of the sort of political meddling and fiscal and sporting scandals associated with big brother Olympics.

Not so. Remember the financially-stricken 1986 Games in Edinburgh, which had to be embarrassingly saved from humiliation by the intervention of that awful crook Robert Maxwell, and, were then overshadowed by the boycott by 32 nations - mainly from Africa, Asia and the Caribbean - who withdrew because of Britain’s links with South Africa?

And those in Victoria, Canada, in 1994 which were preceded by a doping scandal which rocked the world of athletics when English middle distance runner Diane Modahl (pictured), the reigning Commonwealth Games 800m champion, was sent home after it was revealed she had tested positive following an earlier event in Portugal.

The talented and popular Modahl had been something of a model athlete and the ensuing rumpus caused Sebastian Coe to declare to a group of us: "If someone like Diane is on drugs then there is no hope for our sport." As it happened Modahl was later exonerated after lengthy litigation - her plea that the sample she provided had deteriorated while awaiting testing being accepted.

The Commonwealth Games have always had their share of drama, and Delhi won’t be an exception.

But I suspect after all preceding controversies, there will be a sense of relief and anti-climax when they happen, and that all involved will return home safe and sound, better for the experience, whatever that may be.

And at least the world has been made aware - albeit through the lurid tales of gloom and doom - that they are actually taking place, and for that I suppose the Games Federation, the hosts and the TV networks should be grateful.

For the Games have appeared to be dying of disinterest, both among the public and the elite performers.

But inevitably Delhi will be remembered as The Shame Games and whether after Glasgow in 2014 they will have a viable future is another debate.

Alan Hubbard is an award-winning sports columnist for The Independent on Sunday, and a former sports editor of The Observer. He has covered a total of 16 Summer and Winter Olympics, 10 Commonwealth Games, several football World Cups and world title fights from Atlanta to Zaire

In the words of Hello! Magazine, the British Olympic Ball at the Grosvenor House Hotel on Friday night was "The Ball of the Year", and who am I to argue?

It was certainly a special night of Olympic celebration and it was a privilege to enjoy the company of over 60 British medallists alongside celebrity stars from the worlds of entertainment, music and business, and we were thrilled to be joined by HRH Prince Harry as our guest of honour.

The event was a tremendous show of support for the British Olympic Association (BOA) and Team GB.

In between the dancing and merriment was a serious raison d’être - as an independent organisation that relies solely on private funding, the British Olympic Ball is a crucial fundraiser.

Funds raised will enable Team GB athletes to make the most of the once-in-a-generation opportunity of competing right here in London in 2012, so I was delighted that hopefuls including Jessica Ennis (pictured), Zoe Smith and Daniel Keatings were able to sit alongside Olympic legends such as Steve Redgrave, Matt Pinsent and Jonathan Edwards and see first hand the terrific level of support and passion that exists for them to succeed in London.

The event was bigger and better than ever before and many of the business leaders and distinguished guests in the room were generous with their support, which enabled us to raise a significant six-figure sum from the night and make this our most successful Olympic Ball.



The following morning I was up early and on my way to the Echo Arena in Liverpool to see Great Britain’s women’s handball team take on Italy in the Four Nations Tournament.

An impressive performance saw GB win 31-21. The victory over Italy represents a very credible result and a real breakthrough.

It was encouraging to see the progress and improvement being made in a sport like handball, where we do not have a strong Olympic tradition.

An Olympic discipline since 1972, handball was voted ‘best sport’ at the Sydney Olympics in 2000 and is one of the most popular Olympic sports in the world, with major championships attracting a TV audience of over one billion.

Seeing top class international handball live, you can understand why.

Handball is a fascinating, fast-paced and physical team sport with goals galore.

It certainly has the attributes to capture the imagination of the British public in 2012

A quick dash across the M62 then took me to Manchester for the Taekwondo British Championships where GB athletes claimed an impressive three gold medals from a high quality field consisting of 500 athletes from 53 nations.

Taekwondo is another high action, high speed sport and the home crowd cheered gold medals for GB’s World Number One and European Champion, Aaron Cook, Bianca Walkden and Tony Grisman, who beat current World Champion, Mohammad Motamed.

It was also great to see young Jade Jones in senior competition, fresh from her gold medal triumph with Team GB at last month’s first Youth Olympic Games in Singapore.

At both the taekwondo and handball it was inspiring to see the spirit and attitude of the British athletes, competing with commitment, dedication and passion.

It’s the same spirit that was present at the British Olympic Ball - presented by BT - where fans of Team GB were keen to do their bit to support our nation’s athletes on the road to 2012.

Now there are less than two years to go to 2012, or 95 Mondays, you can really feel the momentum and the sense of anticipation building across the length and breadth of the country.

London 2012 represents a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for Team GB athletes, for sport, for our nation.

I, for one, am incredibly excited and energised but we won’t rest on our laurels.

As we say at the BOA - Better Never Stops.

Andy Hunt is the chief executive of the British Olympic Association

As far as culture shocks go, I feel like I’ve been hit by about 250,000 volts!

India is by far the most unique country I have ever been to, but I’m not sure if that’s a good thing.

As soon as I arrived at Delhi Indira Gandhi International Airport via London Heathrow, one thought immediately struck me: "How the Hell did anyone ever think this place was meant to host the Commonwealth Games?"

With huge piles of rubbish apparent at every turn, stray dogs, rats and snakes as common as people and busy traffic jams stretching as far as the eye can see, it doesn’t seem to me to be an obvious location for a major multi-sport event to take place.

Although I am half-Indian, I had never been to the country before and my biggest reference for place was the film Slumdog Millionaire.

In that respect, I was not disappointed because Delhi is a crowded, bustling place complete with the dusty, dirty streets depicted in the Danny Boyle film.

Driving around on the packed, potholed roads with cars beeping incessantly feels about as safe as shaving your wrist although I must admit, a ride on the famous tuk-tuk (a cheap three wheeler motor cart that is a cross between a motor bike and a tiny van) represented the most fun I have had in a while.

It was a bit like being on a ride at Thorpe Park only with the very real danger that you may be hit and fatally injured by the cars flashing by just inches away from you.

Another fear-inducing factor in India is the pigeons.

Yes, pigeons.

They are not the same as the timid birds I am used to in England but fearless creatures that walk into you from time to time as if spoiling for a fight.

And due to the enormous size of them, I wouldn’t fancy my chances.

The one thing that had been mooted as troublesome ahead of Delhi 2010 was security, but it appears quite safe to me due to the fact that you can not walk more than ten metres without seeing an armed security guard.

The backdrop to the city is a dark shade of brown which seems to be the colour of many of the worn old buildings, but perhaps the most striking think is the immense poverty apparent almost everywhere.

There are beggars and homeless people lining the back streets or simply washing in polluted streams on the side of the road.

But, bizarrely, they appear rather content and the children are often smiling and joking with each other in what appears to me to be the bleakest of situations.

Closer to the venues for the Commonwealth Games, there is very much a sense that a lot of work has been attempted in a very short space of time and it is a sad sight to see more young children carrying huge piles of bricks or rubble when you are fully aware that they are paid next to nothing for their hard labour.

The Athletes’ Village has been the main talking point at these Games and, at a distance, it doesn’t look all that bad.

However, as you get closer, you begin to see the problem.

Like most of Delhi, it is the sheer heat and dusty terrain that seems to have assisted in leaving dirty marks on the venue.

They are still being cleaned right now despite many of the athletes having moved in to some of the nicer apartments.

It was actually the organising committee secretary-general Lalit Bhanot who made the infamous comment a few weeks ago regarding the appallingly dirty conditions in the village when he said: "Everyone has different standards about cleanliness. The Westerners have different standards, we have different standards."

The comment came as prominent Commonwealth nations such as New Zealand and Scotland were contemplating boycotting the event and Bhanot was heavily criticised for saying what he did.

However, now I’m here, I kind of agree with him. This place is about as far away from modern living standards in the UK, USA or any other Westernised country as possible.

It cannot be disputed that the state of the Athletes’ Village was unacceptable but if the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) were looking for a spotlessly clean Games, they should never have taken it to Delhi.

Another key characteristic of Delhi is the smell of the place, which is a permanent reminder of the spicy cuisine they serve.

I am a big curry fan but seven in the last two days is bordering on the ridiculous.

This coupled with the fact that I am not a huge fan of spicy curries means Delhi’s staple foods and me are a bad mix.

It appears that you cannot make a meal in India’s capital without putting an outrageously spicy ingredient in it which, maybe in winter, wouldn’t be too bad.

But a hot curry followed by the 35 degree heat outside is an unpleasant combination.

However, the spicy food, the lack of cleanliness, the crazy driving and the heat can all be forgiven and in all honesty, aren’t all that awful once you start getting use to them

It is simply a culture shock to a Westerner like me and once I took a step back, I had to admit that I was quite fascinated by this new world.

The thing one thing that can’t be forgiven though is Delhi’s obvious lack of readiness for a Commonwealth Games.

A major footbridge collapsing outside the main stadium just days ahead of the Opening Ceremony tells its own story and although the staff and the volunteers working at the Games are genuinely lovely and very friendly people who are unusually polite in their willingness to help, they don’t actually appear to have been assigned proper roles.

In fairness, they cannot be blamed for this as many of the venues are woefully behind where they should be.

I feel the London 2012 Organising Committee, who still have just under two years to deliver the Olympics and Paralympics, are probably ahead of Delhi at this stage!

The Main Press Centre, where I have spent the majority of my time, is a prime example.

There is no wireless internet access, accreditations are well behind schedule and the head of press operations, Manish Kumar, was removed from his post just days ago leaving the organisation of the place in chaos.

Delhi has something so unique to offer that it had the potential to be one of the great multi-sport events of all time.

It is such a strange city with such wonderful culture that it still might pull it out of the fire at the last minute and I am a big advocate for judging the Games after rather than before they have taken place.

But it seems that the Organising Committee, led by Suresh Kalmadi, has shot Delhi in the foot.

Superficially it may look good but on the ground, things appear like they will be awfully difficult.

This event was meant to be a platform for India to showcase itself as an emerging world power and a potential platform for an Olympic bid in 2020.

They can probably kiss that notion goodbye now, though I do believe they could host an amazing Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) could do a far more stringent job than the much smaller CGF in monitoring the progress of construction and would be able to ensure that a Games is delivered on time, on budget and with a lasting legacy.

CGF chief executive Mike Hooper tried to ensure this with his limited resources and has come under heavy fire in the media for his criticism of the organisers.

But while outspoken, he is not out of line and has said nothing regarding the stuttering progress Delhi has made that can be deemed an outright lie.

I feel the IOC would have ensured that Kalmadi left his post a long time ago and if the Organising Committee in Delhi think Hooper is bad, they wouldn’t know what hit them if an IOC Evaluation Commission turned up to inspect the venues.

Unfortunately, regardless of what happens over the next three weeks, the Delhi Games has not been delivered on time, on budget and will not leave a lasting legacy, which is a huge shame for the poor Delhiites who deserve more.

They, and India, have simply been let down by a small but significant minority.

The city has something amazing to offer the world but I don’t think it will be at these Games because hosting a major sporting event in this city required a lot more work than has been put in.

Anyway, I’ll wait and see what happens and judge afterwards.

It may well be a truly great Games that defies the predictions of even its most vociferous critics.

But such comments come from my half-Indian heart rather than my head.

Tom Degun is a reporter for insidethegames and will be covering the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi

It was just an underplot amidst the tonnage of positive news and themes emerging from the weekend's buoyant United States Olympic Committee (USOC) Assembly in Colorado Springs, but the topic of a possible Denver 2022 Olympic Winter Games bid by the United States came up in media scrums more than once.

To be sure, USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun was clear that a future bid for an American Games by the USOC was secondary to the critical issues of its relationship with the International Olympic Committee and issues related to revenue sharing.

Blackmun was candid that the USOC would also look at the possibility of bidding for other important international events that made sense, in order to establish itself as an international friend and supporter, such as the Youth Olympic Games.

In attendance at the Assembly were representatives of the Reno-Tahoe area, which continues to shadow the USOC with its interest in a future Olympic Winter Games, and there are whispers that Salt Lake City has interest in another host role, which would be three decades after its magnificent 2002 triumph.

It’s no secret that the Metro Denver Sports Commission has made landing the Games a mission, and President KieAnn Brownell and her team were on hand at the Assembly. The Denver group has been aggressive in seeking international events to bolster a platform for an Olympic bid, securing the 2009 Sport Accord and working to land the 2018 or 2022 FIFA World Cup. The city will also host the 2012 NCAA Basketball Women’s Final Four.

"We are interested in looking at all types of events that we can bring to Denver for economic impact," Brownell told John Meyer of the Denver Post on Saturday, "At some point, if the USOC says we're going to get back in the [Olympic] bid game, we would be interested in sitting down and talking to them and seeing what that looks like."

That said, dreaming that I would happily be watching a 2022 Denver Olympic Winter Games on NBC Sports at my home in Kennebunkport, on Maine’s Down East shores, here’s my own, speculative, afternoon nap vision of a Denver Games 12 years on down the road of life:

Opening Ceremony - In front of 58,000 at Denver Olympic Stadium and a beautiful light snowfall, Coors Field as we know it, the home of the Rockies, but under IOC regulations, re-named because of sponsor sensitivity. The massive Invesco Field at Mile High was not available because the Denver Broncos and the NFL could not commit to the time and work to retrofit the stadium during the season and with the potential of the league’s playoff dates.

Main Press/Broadcast Center - The Colorado Convention Center in downtown Denver. 584,000 square feet of space for news agencies, a 5,000-seat theatre and 63 meeting rooms for IOC briefings and assorted USOC and National Olympic Committee media events and announcements. Numerous restaurants and amenities for the accredited media and the hub of the media transportation system for the venues.

Media accommodation for the more than 9,000 accredited news media and broadcast partner personnel at more than 75 Denver-area hotels selected by the IOC and the Denver Olympic Organising Committee with a varied rate schedule related to location and services.

Main Athlete Villages - Accommodation for the 3,000 athletes and 1,000 delegation support personnel at Denver University, Metro State and CU-Denver student housing for Denver events, modeled on the Los Angeles 1984 campus housing system at USC and UCLA. The students of the three institutions get a Games-long holiday.

Figure Skating - The 18,000-seat Denver Ice Center, also known as the Pepsi Center, but possibly re-named during the Games to support longtime Olympic sponsor Coca-Cola.

Men’s and Women’s ice hockey - At the Magness Arena at Denver University, capacity 8,000 for the sport, which now features non-NHL and collegiate players from competing nations after the NHL withdrew from the Games under pressure by team owners after the 2010 Vancouver Games.

Alpine Skiing - Beaver Creek, 120 miles from Denver and home of previous World Cup and other major international ski events. Athlete housing in designated hotels/motels. Ski jumping at brand-new venue with seats for 12,000 below the jump and for more than 25,000 at the Downhill and other Alpine events.

Nordic Skiing, Cross-Country Skiing, Biathlon - Winter Park, 67 miles from Denver with a specially-constructed Nordic stadium for the events seating 15,000 at the finish line. Seats are temporary and removed after the Games.

Bobsled, Skeleton, Luge, Snowboard/Freestyle skiing - At the new Colorado Olympic Park, 20 minutes west of Denver, in Genesee Park, Denver’s largest mountain park. Housing for athletes at the Colorado School of Mines in Golden. Refrigerated run for sliding sports with temporary seating and for the other venue events which will be removed after the Games. Funding from the state’s special Olympic lottery.

Curling - At the 1stBank Center in nearby Broomfield, called the Olympic Curling Center for the Games, just up the pike from Denver.

Speed Skating - At the new, 8,000-seat Denver Olympic Oval, near the Denver University campus and the home of the DU Pioneers WCHA ice hockey team, with Magness Arena now devoted to the school’s men’s and women’s basketball gymnastics and other sports only.

Short Track Speed Skating - At the Colorado Springs World Arena, just 60 miles south of Denver, with 7,500 seats and athlete housing at the U.S. Olympic Training Center and University of Colorado at Colorado Springs.

Medals Plaza - At the Denver Civic Center near the Capitol, where almost 10,000 can enjoy the official medals presentations to the athletes each evening after sundown, with the lights and sights of the city, music, nightly fireworks and pageantry. The athletes arrive in horse-drawn, vintage carriages.

This and that- The Official IOC headquarters hotel is the historic Brown Palace.

There is almost nobody alive (or coherent) who can recall that Denver was awarded the 1976 Olympic Winter Games but gave them back to the IOC, which turned to Innsbruck. It's not an issue now as this superb city hosts the Games.

Former USOC chief executive Scott Blackmun is the chairman of the 2022 Denver Olympic Organising Committee after retiring from the USOC in 2015 and helping to return the organisation to prominence and credibility. William J. Hybl of Colorado Springs and USOC President Emeritus, is the Governor of Colorado, and joins the Mayor of Denver, Tim Tebow, Blackmun and the President of the United States as she declares the Games officially open at the Opening Ceremony.

Citius, Altius, Fortius!

Mike Moran was the chief communications officer of the USOC for nearly 25 years before retiring in 2003. In 2002 he was awarded with the USOC's highest award, the General Douglas MacArthur Award. He worked on New York's unsuccessful bid to host the 2012 Olympics and is now director of communications for the Colorado Springs Sports Corporation.