India to bid for 2020 Games

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India will bid for the 2020 Olympics, the country's Olympic association (IOA) president said on Saturday.

"The moment the Commonwealth Games are over, all of us will be working on that bid ... we will start off immediately," Suresh Kalmadi told a news conference in the presence of IOC president Jacques Rogge.

New Delhi is to stage the 2010 Commonwealth Games though Kalmadi said this week there would be no bid for the 2016 Olympics after the failure earlier this month to land the 2014 Asian Games.

The IOA blamed sports minister Mani Shankar Aiyar for the failed Asian bid, saying his statement that New Delhi hosting the Commonwealth Games was an attempt to improve the country's global image but of little relevance to the common man caused the damage.

Rogge said on Saturday of a 2020 Olympics bid: "I think you have great potential based on the general conditions of your country's progress, which will definitely also evolve in a positive way at the time when the Games are awarded (in 2013)."

He added: "You also have the opportunity to stage a wonderful Commonwealth Games which will strengthen the bid."

Rogge predicted that Asia would become the most dominant sporting continent.

He said: "You are the most populous continent and that will translate into results - maybe not immediately in Beijing (2008 Olympics) - but in the long term Asia really will become the dominant continent in sport."


source : Reuters