Commonwealth Games all set to arrive ‘on time and on budget’

COMMONWEALTHS: Birmingham event compressed between Worlds and Europeans

Preparations for the 2022 Birmingham Commonwealth Games are “on time and on budget”, the government has said.

Culture Minister Nigel Huddleston acknowledged there were challenges around Covid-19 but said the government is working with organisers to ensure the games are delivered on budget.

It comes as the Birmingham Commonwealth Games Bill – which includes measures relating to funding, transport, commercial rights and ticket touting – cleared its latest hurdle in the Commons and moved closer to becoming law.

Mr Huddleston confirmed the opening ceremony is being moved back one day to July 28 2022 so as not to clash with the semi-finals of the rescheduled Uefa European Women’s Championships.

Commonwealth Games chiefs hope pushing the 2022 event in Birmingham back by 24 hours will tempt track stars like Laura Muir and Dina Asher-smith to go for a golden hattrick.

The games will now run from July 28 to August 8, carving out an extra day’s rest after the world championships in Oregon, as well as avoiding a direct clash with the semifinals of the women’s European football championships in England.

With the European championships due to start in Munich on August 11, it still leaves the UK’S top track and field stars with a potential fight against jetlag and fatigue.

But Birmingham bosses have responded by slashing the track and field competition to just five days, with a promise to tinker with the diary so that the likes of Scot Muir – who could face up to 16 races in 37 days – don’t risk burnout.

“It was due to start on July 31 so that’s making it a more compressed timeframe,” revealed Commonwealth Games Federation chief executive David Grevemberg.

“It comes down to the scheduling of certain events compared to when they start and finish at the world athletics championships. The detailed schedule is being worked through and it’s far from complete.

“But the daily schedule will be more at the back end of the programme and be more compressed, going from seven days to five days. It makes it tighter but there are opportunities to make it more exciting and more impactful.”

Even so, having three significant events in quick succession – the domino effect from switching the Olympics to 2021 – will hand leading athletes a huge dilemma over whether they opt for a triple attack.

But Grevemberg said: “I think it’s a wonderful challenge – to do the unprecedented. You could almost create it as a grand slam. It’s a challenge and athletes like a challenge.

“We need to really embed the realm of possibility about something like a grand slam that summer in terms of hitting all three golds in particular events. I think it could be a really momentous opportunity, not only for the sport but for those individual athletes in terms of bringing home gold medals in three major championships.”

Not everyone will have the option. Marathon star Callum Hawkins, denied victory by heat stroke at the 2018 Commonwealths on the Gold Coast, will surely opt to better his fourth places at the past two world championships rather than pulling on a Team Scotland vest in Birmingham.

One leading coach suggested it will be “two from three” with the CGF ruling out offering cash for appearances despite heavy hints that Usain Bolt was given a fee for his relay cameo at Glasgow 2014.

But Grevemberg, who ran those games, said: “Glasgow 2014 didn’t pay Usain Bolt to come. One thing that we did was the dispensation on taxation which London had done before, as did the Diamond League, in the lead up to Glasgow.”

The games will also, he insisted, provide athletes with room to voice their political stances in the wake of a surge of backing for the Black Lives Matter movement which has shone an uncomfortable spotlight on the history of the Commonwealth itself.

David Grevemberg: “Opportunities”.