St. Kitts is the battleground for Hambantota, Sri Lanka and Gold Coast, Australia, in their bid to host the 2018 Commonwealth Games.
Some 400 delegates representing some 71 nations began a series of meeting on Monday which will decide the winning bid on Friday 11th November.
Monday the CDF Sports Committee met and viewed the presentation by the Sri Lankan delegation.
Tuesday morning the CDF Audit Committee meets in session prior to a meeting of the CDF Sports Committee at which the Gold Coast will make a presentation. The Commonwealth Games Federation Executive Board begins meeting mid afternoon Tuesday and will continue Wednesday with half hour presentations from the Hambantota 2018 and Gold Coast 2018.
Regional Meetings of the commonwealth Games Federation will convene mid afternoon separate meetings will be convene by the Africa, Americas, Asia, Caribbean, Europe and Oceania delegations.
Delegates convene in the Grand Ballroom on Thursday morning for a workshop at which the Sports Programme will be reviewed. Delegates will also review the Delhi 2010 Athletes Survey Report and receive an update on the 2014 Games to be held in Glasgow, Scotland, ahead of the official opening of the General Assembly at the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park, hosted by the St. Kitts Commonwealth Games Association (SKCGA).
The official business session of the Commonwealth Games Federation General Assembly convenes all day in the Grand Ball Room and will culminate with the formal announcement of who host the XXI Commonwealth Games.
Reports state it could well turn out to be a red letter day in the annals of Sri Lanka’s sports history when the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) votes to select the hosts of the 2018 Commonwealth Games on 1-11-11.
Sri Lanka’s Southern City of Hambantota is expected to give a close fight to Australia’s Gold Coast.
Australia has hosted the Commonwealth Games three times before and will be looking forward to make it the fourth with a venue which already has the necessary infrastructure.
But Hambantota 2018 has put forward a strong bid, with a well-knit sports city which would be enriched with all modern sports facilities in the world and unmatched Sri Lankan hospitality.
The evaluation committee members of the CGF who toured Hambantota recently were impressed with the architectural view of the proposed sports city which guarantees stadia of international class.
On the other hand, Hambantota 2018 bid has received a strong boost after Sri Lankan President His Excellency Mahinda Rajapaksa’s inspiring speech at Sports Breakfast hosted by Australian Prime Minister the Right Hon. Julia Gillard on the sidelines of the recent Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting (CHOGM) in Perth.
While commending Australia’s contribution for the success of the Commonwealth Games, President Rajapaksa requested Commonwealth officials to give Sri Lanka a chance of hosting the Games as it would be a “life changing event” for millions of Sri Lankans.
Citing Malaysia as a classic example with the identical socio-economic indicators of Malaysia before hosting the 1998 Games and Sri Lanka at present, President Rajapaksa expressed confidence that Sri Lanka could too make that giant leap, if Hambantota hosts the 54-nation Games. He also highlighted another vital point which had won the hearts of CGF countries which had never hosted Commonwealth Games.
Queensland Premier the Hon. Anna Bligh will arrive in St. Kitts on Tuesday.
Before leaving Brisbane on Sunday, Ms Bligh told reporters that if the bid was successful, it would be a win for the whole state.
Basketball events would be played in Cairns and Townsville, shooting and velodrome events in Brisbane, and all Queenslanders would have an opportunity to be part of the games.
“We know that Queenslanders got behind the 1982 Commonwealth Games in Brisbane,” Ms Bligh said.
“I know that if we’re successful this week, they’ll get behind the 2018 Commonwealth Games on our beautiful Gold Coast.”
The bid team is hoping a video showing off the Gold Coast’s sports facilities and glittering beaches will win over the delegates.
Securing the games would mean upgrades for several sports facilities on the Gold Coast – such as a million redevelopment of the city’s aquatic centre – and attract future international events.
It could generate up to billion in economic benefits with the equivalent of up to 30,000 full-time jobs created between 2015 and 2020.
About Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park
The Fortress, constructed intermittently between the 1690s and 1790s, is of singular importance as being the remains of a large, complete military community of the 18th century. As such, it is a veritable time capsule of international significance.
The prominent Citadel is one of the earliest and finest surviving examples of a new style of fortification known as the ‘polygonal system’.
Brimstone Hill is nearly 800 feet high with steep and precipitous slopes which had to be tamed by the disciplines of engineering and architecture, and at the risk and probable loss of human lives. The walls of the structures are predominantly of stone, labouriously and skilfully fashioned from the hard volcanic rock of which the hill is composed. The mortar to cement the stones was produced on site from the limestone which covers much of the middle and lower slopes. The Fortress is virtually a man-made out growth of the natural hill.
The physical location of the Fortress presents attractive panoramic vistas of forested mountains, cultivated fields, the historical township of Sandy Point, and neighbouring Dutch, English and French islands across the Caribbean Sea.
Brimstone Hill and its Fortress is a National Park within the terms of the National Conservation and Environment Protect Act (1987) which gives the Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park Society “the power to make and enforce Regulations for ( its ) management and administration”.
The Society is a voluntary organization founded in 1965, and registered as a non-profit company. Its Council of Management, made up of elected representatives of its members and two Government nominees, makes all policy decisions.
The Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is inscribed upon the World Heritage List of the Convention concerning the Protection of the World Cultural and Natural Heritage. Inscription on this List confirms the exceptional universal value of a cultural or natural site which deserves protection for the benefit of all humanity.
The Brimstone Hill Fortress National Park is an exceptional and well preserved example of 17th and 18th century military architecture in a Caribbean context. Designed by the British and built by African slave labour, the Brimstone Hill Fortress is testimony to European colonial expansion, the Atlantic slave trade, and the emergence of new societies in the Caribbean.
(Source http://www.cuopm.com/newsitem_new.asp?articlenumber=2492&post200803=true)
