Holmes says alarm over Commonwealth Games security is premature

Dame Kelly Holmes has said that England will pull out of the Commonwealth Games in Delhi in October if security advisers suggest that the team have been targeted.

However, the double Olympic champion, who is the president of Commonwealth Games England, said she was convinced that would not be the case. Instead, Holmes said it was premature for any athlete to be pulling out of the event that could form invaluable preparation for the 2012 Olympics in London.

And, just as she feels that the security issue for this summer’s football World Cup finals in South Africa has been overblown, so she questioned the motives of anyone pulling out of Delhi seven months in advance.

“Security is always a factor,” she said. “But we have security forces out there and if they suggested to us that our athletes were at risk then it is an absolute no-brainer — we won’t go. But they haven’t done anything of the sort. Not one thing has been suggested.

“Our teams have been going out every month and we have been taking the national governing bodies out there. It’s a long way off and it is absolutely pointless people making assumptions now. We will leave it to the last minute.”

The issue has been brewing since an unnamed senior Whitehall source was quoted as saying that there was “virtually no chance” of England sending a team to Delhi. Then last month the Pakistani branch of al-Qaeda threatened that there would be “consequences” if the international community supported the Commonwealth Games, cricket’s Indian Premier League and the men’s hockey World Cup. The hockey passed off in the Indian capital without incident this month and England, who lost in the semi- finals, are preparing to improve on that showing at the Commonwealth Games.

Holmes, who won her first significant gold medal at the 1994 Games in Victoria, Canada, said: “The key thing to ask is whether it is important to our sportspeople and, as someone who has been there, I can say it absolutely is. The Commonwealths taught me about multisport competition before going to an Olympics and that is so important. You go to an Olympics and it is overwhelming. You can’t imagine it unless you have had some sort of experience.

“The Commonwealths also allow young people to get among the medals and taste that. Most of our well-known stars went there.”