LAGOS – Firty-eight athletes have been granted special permission to compete in the Commonwealth Games in spite of their countries missing last month’s deadline for entries.
The Games will hold from July 23 to Aug. 3 in Glasgow, Scotland.
The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) said in a statement that the 48 athletes from eight countries had been granted special dispensation to ensure that they did not miss their events.
It would be recalled that the deadline for entries closed on June 11.
The statement added that the athletes in a variety of unnamed sports are from Australia, The Bahamas, Ghana, Jamaica, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Trinidad and Tobago.[eap_ad_1]
According to the statement, Prince Imran, President of the CGF warned that countries that failed to follow the proper entry procedures in future faced being punished.
“The CGF Executive Board took the view that wherever possible athletes should not suffer because of the failings of their administrators.
“But we also had to ensure that the extra numbers could be accommodated at this very late stage within the existing complex operations and schedules, and without unfairly impacting on those properly entered.
“We thank the Glasgow Organising Committee for working through the issue at this very busy time to allow us to assist the athletes.
“These athletes have trained for years for the opportunity to take part in Glasgow and we welcome them to these Commonwealth Games and wish them well.
“But these situations must be avoided in future,’’ the statement quoted Imran as saying. (NAN)[eap_ad_4]
