LONDON — Triple World and Olympic sprint champion Usain Bolt has denied committing himself to running at next year’s Commonwealth Games, despite organisers’ assurance to the public that he would.
Suresh Kalmadi, the chairman of the local organising committee of the New Delhi event, had announced to a high-powered audience, including Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, at the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting (CHOGM) in Port-of-Spain, that Bolt would definitely be competing at the event that opens on October 3, 2010.
But according to his manager Ricky Simms, there is final decision on whether or not the Jamaican will make the trip to India, stating that Bolt believes it is way too early for him to make such a commitment.
“I’ve spoken to Glen Mills [Bolt’s coach] who confirmed that no decision will be made about Usain’s participation in the Commonwealth Games until May-June 2010 when he starts racing in the IAAF (International Association of Athletics Federations) Diamond League,” Simms, Bolt’s British-based manager, was quoted as saying on Insidethegames.
Kalmadi thinks having Bolt competing at the Games would definitely hoist the creditability of an event which many believe is slowly inching towards a decline.
And it was not the is not the first occasion that Kalmadi, who is also the President of the Indian Olympic Association and a member of IAAF’s ruling Council, has claimed that Bolt will definitely run in Delhi. He did the same in September having made it something of a personal mission to get Bolt to compete there and the that they were seeking a major Indian company to sponsor the Jamaican in the hope that it would guarantee his participation in the Games.
