Games briefs

Swimmers have a plan B
Melbourne:The leading Commonwealth swimming nations,including Australia and Britain,have discussed staging an alternative competition if next month’s Delhi Games are cancelled. New Zealand swimming’s high performance manager Jan Cameron said countries such as Australia,New Zealand,Britain and Canada have a “plan B” in their “back pocket” although they hope the situation does turn that bad. “I don’t expect it to come to that. We don’t have anything concrete and nor do we want to,but we are ready to move quickly should it come to that,” Cameron told New Zealand radio. “That’s the likely scenario. But at the moment none of us are willing to go down that track other than to make sure in the back pocket we’ve got a Plan B,” she said. “Australian head coach Leigh Nugent confirmed there had been discussions of an alternate swimming meet during the Pan Pacific championships in California last month,but no agreement had been reached,” a report in the ‘Australian’ said.

Easy for Saurav,Joshna
New Delhi: India’s top squash players Saurav Ghosal and Joshna Chinappa have got easy draws in the singles event of the Commonwealth Games from October 3-14. Saurav,who is seeded 11th will meet unseeded Ugandan Ian Rukunya in the first round,while 15th seed Joshna will be up against unseeded Malaysian Sharon Wee. Hosts India are expected to win their first ever medal in squash if the women’s doubles where Joshna Chinappa and Dipika Pallikal have been seeded second. Malaysian Nicol David,who celebrated her 50th successive month as world No.1 this month,is the firm favourite to win the women’s singles gold medal for the first time — while Englishman Nick

Matthew,the world No.2 ,is top seed in the men’s individual event,according to the draws announced on Wednesday by the World Squash Federation.

Draws: (only Indians) Men’s Singles 1st round draw: Siddharth Suchde (India) v Michael Hopkins (JEY) [14 Ryan Cuskelly (AUS) v Sandeep Jangra (India) [11 Saurav Ghosal (India) v Ian Rukunya (Uganda) Harinder Pal Sandhu (India) v Shopon Pervez (Bangladesh); Women’s Singles 1st round draw: [15 Joshna Chinappa (India) v Sharon Wee (Malaysia) [16 Alana Miller (Canada) v Anwesha Reddy (India) [14 Dipika Pallikal (India) v Natalie Dodd (GGY) or Stephanie Edmison (Canada) [10 Sarah Kippax (England) v Anaka Alankamony (IND).

MALAYSIA TO HAVE OWN SECURITY
KUALA LUMPUR:The Malaysian government has decided to send security officials with its Commonwealth Games contingent of 201 athletes and 95 officials for CWG but maintains that it trusts the security promises made by the organisers. Youth and Sports Minister Ahmad Shabery Cheek said the national contingent would be accompanied by security officials from the Home Ministry. “But this does not mean that the Malaysian government does not have confidence in the Indian government. We are just taking added precautions and all our officials will also be reminded to give more attention to security aspects,” he said. “I believe India will redouble its efforts to ensure all security and safety aspects are taken care of as it involves their reputation,besides not wanting to be blacklisted as a country that is unsafe to host major sports meets.