Team Scotland are off to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi.
Michael Cavanagh, Chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland announced that the CGS Board had made the decision to fly out to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi today as planned. This follows confirmation from the Team’s Chef de Mission, Jon Doig, that progress continues to be made and guarantees have been given by the Delhi 2010 Organising Committee and the Commonwealth Games Federation that all the outstanding issues will be resolved prior to the arrival of the team. Based on this, Team Scotland is able to confirm its participation.
STV has some photographs of the athletes as they were about to leave for India.
Michael Cavanagh announced:- “I am delighted that the Board has been able to confirm our intention to fly to the Games on Saturday as hoped. There will undoubtedly be challenges ahead in Delhi, but we are confident that these can be effectively managed by our Team management, who have done a fantastic job over the last week to ensure we could get to this position and we thank them for their unstinting efforts.
“I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our athletes who have remained calm throughout these extremely difficult few days and continued to pledge their commitment to the team. I know how hard they have worked to get themselves in the best possible shape for the Games and I am delighted that they will now get the opportunity they deserve to show just what they can do. They have already made us very proud and I know they will represent us with the pride and passion that makes members of Team Scotland so unique.”
Jon Doig, Team Scotland Chef de Mission said: “We are really looking forward to welcoming the athletes to Delhi and are working hard to finalise preparations. We are really grateful to the people of Scotland for the tremendous support they have shown us and we hope they can now look forward to watching our athletes compete at the Games.”
On hearing the news lawn bowler, Willie Wood said: “I am absolutely delighted to hear that we will be travelling to Delhi tomorrow as planned. It’s great to see that things have moved on significantly from the start of the week, and I can now focus on competing for Scotland at my eighth Commonwealth Games.”
The sports due to travel today are: Archery, Lawn Bowls, Shooting, Tennis and Weightlifting. According to Team Scotland, plans are currently being finalised to reschedule those who were due to travel yesterday (Rugby 7s, Boxing and Wrestling) and it is anticipated that they will now travel on Tuesday 28 September.
Public Health and Sport Minister Shona Robison attended the third emergency meeting of the Glasgow 2014 strategic Group. After the meeting she said:-“Following the third emergency meeting of the Glasgow 2014 Strategic Group, I am delighted that Commonwealth Games Scotland now feel they are in a position to confirm that our athletes will travel to compete in the 2010 Commonwealth Games.
“The Scottish Government and its partners have been working hard to ensure that Team Scotland participates in the Delhi Games and I would like to commend our athletes for their positive attitude during a very challenging time.
“I was grateful to receive an update from the Indian Minister for Sport MS Gill yesterday who provided much needed assurances that action was now being taken to address outstanding health and safety concerns over the Athletes Village. We have accepted the guarantees of the Indian authorities and the Commonwealth Games Federation that these issues are being addressed as a matter of urgency.
“I will continue dialogue with the Indian government and will speak with the Minister again today to ensure that further progress is made.
“All Games partners will continue to cooperate to ensure Team Scotland have an enjoyable and successful Commonwealth Games and I look forward to waving off the first athletes at Glasgow airport tomorrow.”
Team Scotland left Glasgow Airport on an Emirates flight this morning. This is the shooting team at check-in!
You can follow what happens to Team Scotland during the Commonwealth Games on Twitter
We feel moved however to comment on the Team Scotland website. Apart from the front page it is a bit poor. There are old articles, links which do not work and few photographs. C’mon Scotland – you can do better than this!
One Scottish tennis player, Elena Baltacha, has since withdrawn from the games as she fears for her health. The BBC online has the full story.
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