Australia more bullish about Delhi 2010 than ever before: Crosswhite

Australian Commonwealth Games Association Chief Executive Mr. Perry Crosswhite has said the country’s athletes will gladly go to the Commonwealth Games in Delhi because they are tougher and more determined to represent their country.

“I think the main thing, is that Australian athletes are just really competitive. They are more so than other nations and as far as they are concerned the Commonwealth Games is really important to them and they are not afraid. Threat or no threat, they are going to go,'' he told The Age newspaper.

With the Games 200 days away on Wednesday, Mr. Crosswhite said Australia's athletes had been kept well informed about the risks of travel to the subcontinent and the measures being put in place to protect them. “No one has expressed to us that he or she is not going,” Mr. Crosswhite said. “Everybody has got to make their own mind up but I'd be disappointed if someone didn't go.”

Mr. Crosswhite's confidence was supported by one of Australia's highest-profile athletes expected to feature in Delhi - world and Olympic champion pole vaulter Steve Hooker. “I don't think there's any reason to be concerned at the moment and for that reason I'm not concerned,” Hooker said.

The successful running of FIH World Cup along with trouble-free test events in shooting and archery has bolstered confidence that organisers have security under control. “We are even more bullish on it than we have been before,” Mr. Crosswhite said. “All that has gone well and the security, although there was some question about it early in those events, has been fixed up pretty quickly. There hasn't been any incidents so it's been good.”