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Will the Commonwealth Games in India Go Ahead Betting

Simon — Thu, 23 Sep 2010 11:44:43 +0000

I bet there are a few twitchy people in London watching India’s Commonwealth Games debacle unfold and thinking, “Yeah, we’ll be alright for London 2012, won’t we?” The situation in India is now beyond repair, which is a shame for India as they seek to push themselves forward as one of the progressive superpowers in the world akin to China and the Beijing Olympics.

Unfortunately, for Delhi, the Commonwealth Games is becoming a national embarrassment and a political nightmare for India.

The pictures of a filthy Athletes Village are anything but abhorrent – and those images have stalled the departures of athletes from Scotland, Wales and New Zeland. Five other nations are now showing serious concerns about sending their athletes to the games. The Scottish sports minister Shona Robison, said there were still “serious health and safety concerns” about the athletes accommodation but that she was “very confident” Scotland’s athletes will fly out to Delhi, but when is still open for debate. England have announced that they will leave on time as scheduled.

With Delhi failing miserably to complete buildings and infrastructure in time for the Commonwealth Games opening Ceremony due to start a week on Saturday (2nd of October) it has left many wondering will the Commonwealth Games in India go ahead, betting odds only seem available just now from William Hill.

Organisers are hopeful the games will go ahead, but one wonders if the games will be remembered for something else other than sporting aspiration – highlighting that these type of sporting showcases come at great financial risk and that getting it wrong is far easier to achieve than getting it right. Hopefully, Delhi and India can get the Games back on track but you wonder at what cost to their reputation the Games will damage.

#market(games2goahead)#

Mens 400 Metres Betting European Championships 2010

Simon — Thu, 29 Jul 2010 14:17:09 +0000

Seems, we will have Rooney featuring in a final this summer. Granted, Martyn Rooney, is not as famous as his footballing namesake, but he does have a decent chance of winning some gold. The 2010 European Championships, held this year in Barcelona, Spain, once was a nice, comfortable place where we could send our top 400 metre runners, knowingly they would come back with gold or at worse silver. However, the days of Roger Black, Duaine Ladejo and Iwan Thomas are filed away under the heading, “British Athletics, The Time When We Were Good At Running”.

Of course it has been a long wait since we have had much success with British Athletics betting. By that I mean exactly what “Smithy from Gavin and Stacey” said in his Sport Relief speech, proper athletics, the running type not the sitting down sports. Team GB failed to win a single individual gold medal at the previous European Championships.

However, Rooney has a battle on his hand to finish in the medal places, with Belgian, Jonathan Borlee, Irishman David Gillick, Frenchman Leslie Djhone and fellow Brit, Michael Bingham. With the London Olympics beginning to loom up from the shadows, it’s about time our athletes grabbed some gold at the European Championships, especially in the 400 metres. When you consider that Usain Bolt is eyeing this event as his next milestone – it may be the last chance we have for some time to win the Mens 400 Metres at any International Championships.

#market(ec2010mens400m)#

Dwain Chambers Selected For Team GB

Paul — Tue, 24 Feb 2009 11:50:29 +0000

After a two year ban, Dwain Chambers, has finally been reselected for Team Gb and will run in the 60m at the European Indoor Championships in Turin on the 6-8 March 2009 – he has been automatically made favourite by the bookies upon hearing the news that Chambers will run. The powerhouse sprinter was sidelined by UK’s governing athletic body (UKA) after testing positive for a banned drug.

Controversy will surround the decision to allow Chambers back into Team GB. Remember the petition to keep him out of the British Beijing Olympics team back in the summer of 08 and now we are supposed to believe that they will welcome him back with open arms or even that Chambers would want to be welcomed by them. Also, remember, the infamous BBC interview where Chambers was asked can someone win an Olympic sprint medal and be clean to which he replied, “It’s possible, but the person that’s taken drugs has to be having a real bad day. That’s what I believe.”

It’s all water-under-the-bridge now, seems to be the mutterings coming from so many involved within athletics – well that is the message they are giving to the media. The invitation to run for Team GB in Turin is a green light for Chambers to ready himself for Olympic Gold in London 2012. And when you consider the Usain Bolt factor then Chambers needs to continue looking forward and let others worry about what happened in the past.