Auckland’s Games bid

Press, 17 February 1983, Page 38

Auckland’s Games bid

PA Wellington Auckland still faces competition for the 1990 Commonwealth Games from at least two other cities. Radio and television reports last week said that the other three contenders for the fourteenth games — Harare, Nairobi and Winnipeg — had all pulled out, leaving Auckland the winner by default.

Zimbabwe and Canadian officials have indicated, however, that their bids have not been withdrawn, but there is doubt that Kenya will pursue its application. The London-based Commonwealth Games. Federation, which has already said it believes four cities want the games, will make its decision during its general assembly in Los Angeles in July next year. The NZPA staff correspon-

dent in London. Kevin Hart, writes that a Kenyan High Commission spokesman said a number of Kenyan sports adminstrators were having some misgivings about Nairobi’s ability to stage the games.

Kenya, with the aid of Chinese manpower, plans to construct a new stadium to act as the venue for the 1986 African Games — an event envisaged as a dress rehearsal for the Commonwealth Games. However, there are now doubts about whether the stadium can be completed by 1986 primarily because the Kenyan government is finding difficulty financing the project. Kenya has made a definite offer to host the African Games but the high commission spokesman said it might still pull out if another country put in a bid to the

Supreme Council for Sport in Africa.

That would likely provoke a similar withdrawal from the race to stage the Commonwealth Games.

A spokesman for the Zimbabwe High Commission said there had been no indication from Harare that it was withdrawing its bid for the games.

From Washington, the NZPA reporter, Hugh Nevill, said that Winnipeg, too, is pursuing its application. He quoted Jim Daly, chairman of a games exploratory committee, saying that Winnipeg. which staged the bigger Pan American Games in 1967, was still in the race for 1990. ,

The games have already been staged three times in Canada — in 1930. 1954 and 1978 — and twice in new Zealand, in Auckland in 1950 and in Christchurch in 1974.