Successful staging of 2010 Commonwealth Games crucial for winning Olympic

Successful staging of 2010 Commonwealth Games crucial for winning Olympic

The International Olympics Committee President, Mr. Jacques Rogge has said that if India conducts the 2010 Commonwealth Games at Delhi successfully, it would be a major step in winning the bid for Olympics in future. Addressing a press conference in the Chattrapati Shivaji Games Village at Balewadi in Pune this evening, the IOC president praised the infrastructure facilities for the Commonwealth Youth Games 2008 and said that staging Olympics would involve a difference of scale, which needed to be taken into consideration. Mr. Rogge also clarified that cricket won’t be a part of 2016 Olympics and said that International Cricket Council (ICC) needed to be a member of IOC to consider allowing cricket in the Olympics.

Speaking at the same press conference, Indian Olympics Association President Mr. Suresh Kalmadi said “the Indian youth was charged up after winning the first ever individual Gold at the Beijing Olympics and the results at the CYG’08 were there for all to see as India was leading the medal tally with performances across the board.” He said the country had launched the National Club Games aimed at broad-basing the sports in the country by spotting and nurturing the talent from the village level upwards. He said the National Club Games would involve training nearly 80,000 sportspersons and there was no lack of funds for sports.

Mr. Kalmadi also said the winners at the CYG’08 would be trained by foreign coaches for improving country’s performance at the London Olympics in 2012.