A month to go for vote, Govt. says momentum building on Hambantota’s 2018 CWG bid

Wednesday, 12 October 2011 00:01 - - {{hitsCtrl.values.hits}}

With just one month until the vote to decide who will host the 2018 Commonwealth Games, the momentum is behind Sri Lanka’s Hambantota 2018 bid.

The decision will be made at the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) general assembly in St Kitts and Nevis on 11 November. As the race reaches its final stages, ‘the island jewel of the Indian Ocean’ is finding growing support for its ambition to host the Games for the first time and in so doing, become only the 10th country to host the Games in its 80 year history.

Having been considered by some as a rank outsider against Australia’s Gold Coast a year ago, the tear-drop shaped nation has since turned the tables. It has impressed many with the calibre of its ‘life-changing’ bid, so dubbed because of the myriad benefits it promises the unified nation and its proud population.

Praised by the CGF Evaluation Commission for being ‘visionary, exciting and unique’ and meeting every single technical requirement, it has since wowed delegations from the Caribbean & Americas, Africa, Europe, Oceania and Asia.

Ajith Nivard Cabraal, Hambantota 2018 Organising Committee Co-Chairman and Governor of the Central Bank of Sri Lanka, said: “Like the athletes we look forward to welcoming to our unified nation and state-of-the-art competition and training venues in 2018, we have looked to peak at the right time. We know the importance of timing; both ahead of this life-changing vote and beyond.”

“The fact that there is a seven-year lag (between the vote and hosting the Games) tells me that the CGF wants people to get ready for the Games, providing the opportunity for new countries to emerge. I believe strongly that the whole experience hinges not on being event-ready but on getting ready over seven years. There are enormous opportunities for young people to train, for businesses to grow, for venues to be constructed and for legacies to be planned. The Games should aspire to deliver these. That’s what our Hambantota 2018 bid is all about,” Cabraal added.

The CGF Evaluation Commission’s 144-page report cites huge benefits in bringing the event to Sri Lanka. It adds that the Hambantota bid could provide a blueprint for future Commonwealth Games and for the other 61 Commonwealth nations that have never hosted the Games to follow.

Australia (1938, 1962, 1982, 2006) and Canada (1930, 1954, 1978, 1994) have hosted the Games four times; New Zealand (1950, 1974, 1990) three times; England (1934, 2002) and Scotland (1970, 1986) twice; and Wales (1958), Jamaica (1966), Malaysia (1998) and India (2010) once.

With Scotland hosting Glasgow 2014, a Hambantota 2018 Games will install Sri Lanka as the 10th country in a list that would have added three ‘new’ hosts in two decades.