Oceania supports Gold Coast Commonwealth Games bid

A dozen Oceanic nations have pledged support for the Gold Coast's Commonwealth Games bid, indicating the city could already have a third of the votes needed to clinch the 2018 event.

Oceania Commonwealth Games regional vice-president Tapasu Leung Ming Wai yesterday said the 12 Oceania countries in the Commonwealth backed the Coast over its Sri Lankan rival Hambantota.

"We had a meeting in Fiji a few weeks ago where there was talk about the Gold Coast bid and supporting the idea," said Mr Leung Ming Wai.

"We see it as a bid on behalf of Oceania.

"Logistically it is closer to us than Sri Lanka and we would support it security-wise."

Australian Commonwealth Games Association chief Perry Crosswhite is now in the midst of political jostling, firming up securing votes from the 71 member nations that will decide the Gold Coast's hosting fate.

He said securing the 12 votes of Oceania, which includes Samoa, Vanuatu, Cook Islands, Niue, Tonga, New Zealand and Papua New Guinea, was a major step toward getting the 36 votes needed to clinch the Games.

"We are full-steam ahead looking at the strategy and politics now and getting people who are going to support us in November 2011 at the General Assembly when the vote happens," he said.

"There are six regions in the Commonwealth and we would hope to get strong support from Europe, the Americas and Caribbean.

"I expect Asia will have some sympathy for Sri Lanka."


Mr Crosswhite said the bid team had already sought tips from Glasgow, which will host the 2014 Commonwealth Games, and would be picking the brains of the Delhi 2010 team currently in Australia for the Queen's Baton Relay.

"Premier Anna Bligh had a meeting with Glasgow where they gave us a lot of information," he said.

Mr Crosswhite said that the bid would be centred around hosting a smaller Commonwealth Games in a regional city as opposed to previous years where it has been held in larger cities.

He expected that would be more appealing, because it opened up opportunities for smaller cities to bid for future games. "We think that is what the Commonwealth Games Federation wants and I think it will be a vote-getter," he said.

Flight chaos hits Commonwealth Games briefing

Flight chaos caused by the Icelandic volcano has scuppered plans for Australia's 2018 bid team to meet with Commonwealth Games officials in London this weekend.

Representatives from the Gold Coast and Hambantota in Sri Lanka were due to attend a briefing at Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) headquarters on Friday and Saturday.

But CGF chief executive Mike Hooper said the meeting, where the bid hopefuls were to learn more about putting together their plans to host the event and what is required of them, would be postponed to June or July.

"Courtesy of Iceland volcano, it didn't happen," Hooper told by phone on Wednesday from his home in New Delhi, where he was stranded after his flight to London was cancelled.

"We're now looking to reschedule the briefing session and we're just trying to find a time suitable to ourselves and the bids.

"I suspect we'll defer it to late June or July as a consequence."

Flights were disrupted around the globe after European airspace was closed for days amid fears an ash cloud from the volcano could clog plane engines.

With the 2010 Commonwealth Games due to start in India in October, time will be tight to squeeze in a briefing beforehand.

"It's a hectic time, as you'd expect, this close to the Games," Hooper said.

If the Gold Coast is chosen to host the 2018 Games, the Queensland government plans to spend $11 million on its bid and invest more than $1 billion in infrastructure, including an upgraded aquatic centre, new velodrome and athletes' village.

It faces competition from the surprise bid by Hambantota, located on the south coast of Sri Lanka with a population of about 500,000.

The winning city will be announced in November 2011.

Lanka's bid for 2018 CWG gets stronger

Sri Lanka's push to snatch the 2018 Commonwealth Games from the Gold Coast is stronger after the man behind Hambantota's bid was overwhelmingly endorsed in the country's general election.

Namal Rajapaksa, the eldest son of Sri Lanka's president Mahinda Rajapaksa, received more votes than any other candidate in history, polling more than 88 per cent.

Mr Rajapaksa proposed that Hambantota should bid for the Games, as the city recovered from the 2004 Boxing Day tsunami and the end of Sri Lanka's 26-year civil war.

He has already started the bid in earnest, meeting with bid document producer Nalin Attygalle about constructing a sports village and inspecting the construction of the proposed International Cricket Stadium in Hambantota, which is expected to be the centrepiece of the Games if they are awarded to Sri Lanka.

Sri Lanka is expected to lodge their non-refundable deposit of $98,000 to confirm their bid with the Commonwealth Games Federation at its headquarters in London later this week before this Friday's deadline.

Mr Attygalle said `it's an enormous task, true, but it's not an impossible task'.

There are also plans to build a new international seaport, international airport, international convention centre and a cinema village before the end of next year and Sri Lanka is expected to seek private investment to fund the $2.7 billion of infrastructure needed.

2018 CWG: Gold Coast taking Lankan bid seriously

Premier Anna Bligh says she is taking seriously Sri Lanka's bid for the 2018 Commonwealth Games, as the nominated region is home to the nation's president.

The Nigerian city of Abuja failed to lodge its expected bid by the deadline of March 31, leaving the Gold Coast to compete against the obscure Sri Lankan region of Hambantota, the home town of president Mahinda Rajapaksa.

Ms Bligh told reporters on Tuesday that while she knew very little about Hambantota, she regarded it as a very serious competitor.

"You don't put forward the president's home town without the national government being serious about having a go," she said.

Ms Bligh acknowledged that the Gold Coast was where she grew up.

"What I expect is that the Commonwealth Games Federation will be looking for the best possible games, and if you want the best possible games, then the Gold Coast is the best possible place," she said.

2018 CWG: Sri Lanka puts in surprise bid

Sri Lanka submitted its bid for 2018 Commonwealth Games surprising the strong competitor Gold Coast, Australia.

Sri Lanka and Australia are only 2 countries bidding for 2018 Commonwealth Games, as Nigeria failed to submit its official bid by 31-Mar.

Sri Lankan town of Hambantota and Gold Coast both have beautiful beaches but that is about the only thing the Gold Coast and its surprise Commonwealth Games competitor Hambantota have in common.

The southern Sri Lankan city unexpectedly entered the bidding to host the 2018 Games after the Nigerian city of Abuja, in the midst of a political crisis, failed to submit a formal nomination by Thursday morning's deadline.

It will now be up to the Commonwealth Games Federation to decide if the Games come to Australia's sixth-largest city or Hambantota, which was devastated by the 2004 tsunami.

A former Sri-Lankan cricketer and Griffith University academic believes human rights injustices will affect the developing country's Commonwealth Games bid.

Griffith Sports College manager Michael Jeh said Hambantota's bid would likely become a political minefield.

He questioned how the tsunami-devastated, poverty-stricken, war-torn region could justify spending billions on sporting infrastructure when residents were still living in squalid refugee camps and illegally entering Australia by boat.

"There will be international questions about human rights issues ... why boat people are coming to Australia and leaving Sri Lanka in their droves if the living conditions are not that bad.

"If I was living in that sort of hardship, you would think they would sort out the refugee situation before taking the luxurious step of hosting the Commonwealth Games."

Mr Jeh said it would be wildly ambitious for Hambantota to believe facilities could be constructed to host the event in eight years.

"The best analogy to use would be to compare the Coast to Yamba -- a sweet, little, beautiful, sleepy beach town.

"That's seven years to catch up to the Gold Coast and it's taken the Gold Coast 50 years to get where it is."

Mr Jeh said residents had little use for Olympic-sized stadiums and swimming pools and the facilities would likely become a white elephant.

But Brisbane-based Sri Lankan Association past president Hiran Cooray said Sri Lanka would get far greater benefit from hosting the Games than the Coast.

"Sri Lanka is a poor developing country, to get a chance for foreign exchanges to come to them ... it would be a boost," he said.