Race against time to finish venues

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 26

Race against time to finish venues

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ROD DEW

in Edinburgh ;

Hundreds of workmen are engaged in a race against time to complete many of the venues in time for the formal opening of the Edinburgh Commonwealth Games tomorrow morning (New Zealand time). In some cases, they are interfering with valuable training time for competitors.

The Meadowbank cycling velodrome track is now in fairly constant use, although teams of builders are only halfway through the construction of the wooden and pipe scaffolding stands on either side. Inevitably, there are times when work prevents the use of the track and this has caused the manager of the New Zealand cycling team, Mr Bruce Dawe, some unhappiness.

“The venues are a bit late being finished,” he said yesterday. “Training sessions have had to be rescheduled, and this is not pleasing everybody.” New Zealand has been allocated two hours a day on the track. If the velodrome had been finished, the team would have had three hours a day. “Two hours goes very quickly when you have an eight-man team,” he said. The main stadium at Meadowbank looks more like a battlefield than the venue for the opening ceremony. Workmen are painting and repairing seating, the jumping pit in front of the main grandstand looks like a builder’s yard, advertising hoardings are scattered about, miles of cable abound, and the finishing touches have yet to be completed on the extensive temporary seating which surrounds two-thirds of the stadium.