THE COMMONWEALTH Games ended on a high note in New Delhi yesterday after 11 days of fierce competition that went a long way towards salvaging Indian pride and prestige tarnished by the shambolic buildup to the event.
For many Indians the 19th Games’ successful completion without any major calamity or security mishap was, in itself, a major accomplishment.
In the main Jawaharlal Nehru stadium, a three-hour extravaganza of military bands, traditional dance, Bollywood showmanship, popular folk and pop music and a laser and fireworks display gave the finishing glimmer to an event that survived rocky preparations, scandals and almost daily operational hiccups.
Organisers said they had proved their detractors wrong and their decision to hold the sporting event to showcase India’s emergence as a world power was a gamble that had paid off handsomely.
Incomplete and uninhabitable athletes’ accommodation, security fears, big-name withdrawals and poor ticket sales were among myriad difficulties that got the games off to a rocky start.
But once the sporting events began and over 6,000 athletes from 71 Commonwealth countries took over, attendance improved dramatically and glitches over transport, accommodation and overall organisation were miraculously overcome.
More importantly the success of India’s athletes – second in the overall gold medal tally behind Australia but one ahead of England’s 37 – has created new stars and role models in a country where only cricket stirs passion.
A pleasing outcome was that many of the medal winners were from modest backgrounds, small towns or remote villages, with several so poor that they did not even have shoes to run in or equipment to practise sports like archery.
The drama of the last of the 272 gold medals being contested overall provided the perfect ending for the hosts as poster girl Saina Nehwal saved a match point against Malaysia’s Wong Mew Choo and won the women’s singles badminton title and the gold that put India ahead of England.
“Delhi successfully overcame disadvantages and delivered a memorable event,” Commonwealth Games federal head Michael Fennel said admiringly at the closing ceremony.
The world will now have a better understanding of India’s potential, he added, to rapturous applause in the packed 60,000-seat stadium.
Forgotten momentarily were the shambolic construction delays, corruption scandals, the collapse of a footbridge near the main stadium days before the games opened and a suspected militant attack on two foreign tourists the weekend before the event.
Faced with the inevitability of traffic jams, power breakdowns and interminable security drills, long-suffering locals put all the negativity behind them and rallied to try and make the games work.
“This was no time for cynicism. That was reserved for before and after the games,” garment designer Ayeesha Ashraf said, referring to the impending investigations into the most expensive games ever, reported to have cost more than $12 billion (€8.5 billion).