Melbourne ready to host Games

by Neil Sands

C'wealth Games: Australia's second largest city has undergone a billion-dollar revamp in preparation for the Commonwealth Games from March 15-26.

As the Games approach, authorities have been feverishly putting the finishing touches to venues, scrubbing graffiti off city walls and gearing up for the biggest security operation in Australian history.

The Commonwealth Games is about one-third the size of the summer Olympics and brings together 4,500 athletes from 71 countries, mostly former British colonies - from India with a population of one billion to Norfolk Island, which has less than 2,000 people.

In contrast to the last Commonwealth Games Australia staged in Brisbane 24 years ago, security will be a major feature of this Games.

Australia's involvement in the US-led campaigns in Iraq and Afghanistan has prompted the government to mount a security campaign that dwarfs the one staged for the Sydney Olympics in 2000.

More than 1,200 heavily armed troops will be deployed on the ground, while warplanes will enforce a 75-kilometre (45-mile) exclusion zone in airspace around the city to prevent a September 11 style attack.

All police leave has been cancelled and extra officers have been called into the city of 3.6 million people and given extra stop-and-search powers.

"It is a level of security that will be the highest ever seen in this country," Victorian Police commissioner Christine Nixon said. While police say there is no specific terrorist threat regarding the Games, Melbourne was mentioned as a potential target last September in a video obtained in Pakistan of a masked man believed to be an Al Qaeda militant.

Concerns were raised further when police swooped on eighteen alleged militants based in Melbourne and Sydney last November and charged them with planning attacks.

Authorities have also stockpiled vaccines, upgraded hospital quarantine facilities and issued medial staff with extra protective equipment in case there is an outbreak of bird flu during the Games, which will attract about 50,000 international visitors.

Melbourne has long regarded itself as Australia's sporting capital and the success of Sydney - with which it has a fierce parochial rivalry - hosting the 2000 Olympics and the 2003 Rugby World Cup rankled.

The Commonwealth Games are seen by many in the city as a way of reclaiming its sporting mantle.

"It's the best thing we've ever done, I'm as proud as punch," Victoria state's Commonwealth Games Minister Justin Madden said. "We'll be displaying to the world what we're best at, in sport, in festivities, in celebration and unity."

The centrepiece of the city's sporting preparations for the Games has been the 434 million dollar (320 million US) refurbishment of the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG), which hosted the first Australia-England Test match in 1877

Since the early 1990s, two-thirds of the circular stadium has been ringed with massive stands, while the final third remained an outdated low-rise structure.

This has now been upgraded, giving the spiritual home of Australian sport a capacity of 80,000 for the Games' opening and closing ceremonies, which will rise to 97,000 after the athletics track installed for the event is removed.

The Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre also has a new 50 metre pool and the city has three of the world's eight sporting venues featuring retractable roofs in the Rod Laver Arena, Melbourne Park, and the Telstra Dome.

Unlike many international sporting events, most venues are within walking distance of the city centre, including an Athletes' Village housing more than 6,000 contestants and officials.

Some 15,000 volunteers will help ensure the Games run smoothly and the city is also staging a major arts festival to coincide with the sporting extravagaza. Games organisers estimate half a million pieces of fruit, a million bottles of water, five tonnes of pasta and 25,000 chickens will be consumed in the Athletes Village during the event.

They have also supplied 60,000 condoms, or just under one a day for the 6,000 athletes and officials in the village.

Official prophylactic supplier Ansell said the company was ready to bring in emergency supplies if its experience during the 2000 Olympics was repeated. "We initially supplied 50,000 condoms for the Athletes Village in Sydney in 2000, however 30,000 additional condoms were requested during Games time", Ansell spokesman Burton Van Rooyen said.

"Similarly, for the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne, Ansell is happy to assist with additional condoms if required."

MELBOURNE, Australia, Tuesday AFP