DURBAN – A massive blow to sport and a huge disappointment. That has been the response from South African athletes and coaches to news that Durban will not host the 2022 Commonwealth Games.
“Love Durban, gutted....” tweeted Olympic swimming gold medallist Chad le Clos on Monday night. “So just going to focus on 2017 World champs,” he added.
Le Clos is currently training in Italy and is expected back home in Durban later this month.
His father, Bert, speaking to the Daily News on Tuesday said he was devastated by the news as his younger son, Jordan, had hoped to compete in the 2022 event.
He said the development of the infrastructure around Durban would have benefited the city in the future.
“Development leaves a legacy behind when you fix something. The swimming pools around London where my son trained and competed in are now used by the public. I understand though that our country and city have many other challenges to deal with,” Le Clos snr said.
Swimming coach Graham Hill said the loss of the games was a massive blow to Durban.
“It is disappointing, because the 2022 Commonwealth Games was something we were all really looking forward to. It was a massive opportunity for the smaller sports to shine, and the legacy of the Games would have been very beneficial to those sports, too.”
The news that the right to host the Games had been taken away from Durban was met with relief in some quarters, but Hill pointed out that it was a massive opportunity lost for athletes to have home ground support.
“We saw what it did for Great Britain. They hosted the London 2012 Olympics, and they then used that as a springboard for the 2016 Games in Rio, too. They produced some of their best ever results, and that was down to what 2012 did for them,” he pointed out.
“I think a lot of us were hoping to use 2022 in the same way, and then kick on, right up to 2030 on that wave.”
Olympic Bronze medallist Bridgitte Hartley while not directly taking part in the Commonwealth, seeing as her sport (canoeing) does not compete in the games, still feels this is a loss for sport in South Africa.
“It is not something I would be training for,” Hartley said. “But at the same time there is a lot of punting leading up to that in terms of sport development. There is a lot more reason and drive to get a team ready and prepared. The sad part is not that we are not hosting it,
but it is that the development of the sport will be at a disadvantage."
Meanwhile, the Commonwealth Games Federation’s (CGF) decision to strip Durban of the hosting rights for the 2022 Commonwealth Games has left James Nxumalo, former eThekwini mayor, bitterly disappointed.
“It is sad because it took a lot of energy and effort to put together a comprehensive bid for this event, and we would not have wasted our time bidding if we were not sure of our capacity and capability to host the Games.”
Nxumalo, who was a driving force behind Durban’s bid, said the Commonwealth Games had the potential to generate a great deal of publicity for the city.
“eThekwini would have been in line to receive huge economic spin-offs from hosting the Games, and as we had previously shown when hosting games during the 2010 World Cup and 2013 Africa Cup of Nations, we were convinced of our readiness to host the event,” Nxumalo said.
Durban already had some infrastructure in place to deliver a world-class event.
South Africa and Durban had lost the hosting rights of the Games due to the government’s inability to guarantee finances to fund the spectacle in five years’ time, Gideon Sam, South African Sports Confederation and Olympic Committee (Sascoc) president, said on Monday.
The CGF on Monday released a statement confirming it had stripped Durban of its rights to host the event, for which R6.5 billion was expected to be set aside.
After its review of South Africa’s submission, to determine whether the country’s proposals to host the Games were consistent with the original bid, the federation opted against proceeding with Durban as the host city.
It cited a “significant departure from the undertakings provided in Durban’s bid” regarding funding, governance, venues and risk management and assurance which were not met.
Louise Martin, president of the CGF, said they were exploring alternative options including a potential replacement host.
Sam said: “The biggest factor is that the government could not guarantee the future outlook of the country’s economy and decided that committing to hosting the Games was just too big a risk to take.”