Glasgow: Competing in just one event, Usain Bolt is likely to race in Glasgow for less than 20 seconds.
Just convincing the sprint star to come to the Games, though, should go a long way to elevating the status of a sporting spectacle that might seem anachronistic.
Two years after the exuberance of the London Olympics, where Bolt left with three golds, Britain is welcoming the world back this week — or former members of the British Empire at least — for Scotland’s largest-ever multi-sports event.
Across 11 days, 4,500 athletes will compete in 17 events as the 20th Commonwealth Games is broadcast for the first time to television audiences in all 71 competing nations and territories. How full the venues will be on those screens remains unclear, with the insatiable appetite for Olympic tickets in London not appearing to have been matched north of the border. The ticket website shows “high availability” still for many events, including Wednesday’s opening ceremony, headlined by rock star Rod Stewart at the home of his beloved football club Celtic, and Susan Boyle, the church volunteer whose soaring voice turned her into an overnight reality TV star.
Even track and field events have tickets still on sale for all but two of the 10 sessions.
Not though on August 1 and August 2 when Bolt will appear for the first time. Unlike in London when he swept the 100m, 200m and 4x100-metre relay titles, the Jamaican is restricting himself to the relay in Glasgow, with just a heat and inevitable final.
Organisers should be relieved Bolt is participating at all, given his lack of action this season due to a foot injury. “I have received lots of requests, invitations and messages of support from my fans in Scotland who are looking forward to a great event,” said Bolt, who skipped the 2006 and 2010 Commonwealth Games.
Like Bolt, a recent foot injury prevented compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the double 100-metre Olympic champion, from participating in the Jamaican trials so her involvement in Glasgow will also be restricted to the relay. Although the enduring relevance of the Commonwealth is often questioned in the 21st century, Fraser-Pryce’s affection for the organisation’s sports festival is clear.
“It ranks high because I’ve never been to a Commonwealth Games before,” Fraser-Pryce said.
“I’ve always thought (after) winning an Olympic gold medal, a world championship gold medal and a world indoor gold medal that if I had a CWG gold medal that would top things off. I don’t think it’s outdated (the CWG), I just think that a lot of persons who believe that are the world powers who aren’t here. So they believe that it’s not a big thing, but ... We are part of the Commonwealth and we see it as something big.”
