Sri Lankans take loss of bid in good spirit
BASSETERRE, St. Kitts – THE mode at the St. Kitts Marriott Hotel on Friday (Nov. 11) evening was mixed with Australians being jubilant having won the bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games and Sri Lankans somewhat saddened over their loss.
The General Assembly of the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) was held from November 7 to 11, 2011 with Gold Coast, Australia and Hambantota, Sri Lanka bidding to host the XXI games.
Several presentations were made to various committees attached to the CGF by each bid team.
And on Friday, the announcement was made that Gold Coast, Australia was successful in pinning down the contract after tallying the votes of 70 Commonwealth countries.
Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the Gold Coast Bid Team, Mark Peters, in an exclusive interview with SKNVibes, said the Gold Coast camp is elated about the win, having spent three years in preparation.
“The last time the games were hosted in Australia was in 2006 and before that it wasn’t until the early 80s. So it’s exciting. We’ve spent the last three years planning and to see that culminating in the Commonwealth Games family entrusting the games to us is very exciting. And for a young people, they will be celebrating.”
Peters expressed that Hambantota’s bid was a good one, but noted that that did not diminish the Gold Coast team’s confidence in winning the bid.
“The key thing for us is this is the World Games. It is one of the biggest multi-sport games there are, so you need to put it in safe hands. You need to put her with countries that have proven they can actually run major events. Hambantota put a very good bid together; it was a very emotional bid about them not doing it before. And it was a very visual bit with their planning of a city...It was a close vote but we expected that. It was very difficult for delegates because it was a virtual bid verses a bid where 80 percent of the facilities are there. So we were never overconfident, we were always humbly confident, but in these contests it’s nerve racking.”
Following the announcement, this media house also spoke with Hemasiri Fernando, President of the National Olympic Committee of Sri Lanka (NOCSL), who explained that although Hambantota would have loved to win the bid, Australia’s win has been taken “in very good spirit”.
He said the Sri Lankans are comforted by the fact that they did all they could to win the contract.
