Throwing up his hands in despair at the end of the first day of the games, Jan Bockweg, Games Technical Manager, IWAS said, "I blame myself for not coming down to Bangalore earlier to see how local sporting events are conducted here, for then I would have known that fixing things at the last moment are part of Indian culture."
But Ratan Singh, President of the Paralympic Committee of India, smiles away the accusations, preferring to pass the buck for poor organisation to the Department of Youth Services and the Government of Karnataka. "It has taken all my PR skills to prevent the teams from walking out," he said.
Waving away Ratan Singh's 'all's well, so don't worry' argument, Jan Bockweg pulls out a steady stream of skeletons from an already groaning cupboard. He explains how appalled he was when he visited the Kormangala Stadium, which is hosting the wheelchair fencing event on Wednesday morning, only to find that the athletes cannot access the training area. 'I caught hold of a contractor and demanded to know what was happening. He said, 'Why worry, sir? The event is on Friday, no? There is a lot of time'. How do I explain to people like him and his bosses that the athletes, who have been in Bangalore since November 21, need to be trained?" Jan thundered.
Mgr Iva Machova, technical expert for track and field events from IWAS, admits that she's battle-weary from repeated run-ins with local officials at the Kanteerava Stadium in Bangalore.
"For three days, I've been chasing everyone possible in the local committee here to get the High Jump Bar. Guess when it landed? Just after we finished the event with a not-so-suitable bar because we couldn't possibly delay it any longer," she said, angrily. "When the PCI had months to prepare for the event, this is inexcusable!"
Iva and Jan and almost each and every athlete, coach and international delegate of IWAS World Games 2009 is convinced that Bangalore is simply not prepared for an event of this kind. "We didn't have very high expectations but what we see here is simply appalling," said Jan.
DH News Service
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