Delhi CM leads celebration to mark 1500 days to 2010 Games

New Delhi, Aug 25 (UNI) Delhi Chief Minister Sheila Dikshit today led a host of sportspersons, sports administrators and people of the capital to celebrate the occasion marking 1500 days to the 2010 Commonwealth Games which would be held here from October 3-14.

The Chief Minister flagged off the ''Countdown Bus'' at the Dhyan Chand National Stadium this morning in the presence of Indian Olympic Association (IOA) President Suresh Kalmadi, Union Minister of State for External Affairs Anand Sharma and a host of sportspersons including Olympic silver medallist Rajyavardhan Singh Rathore, hockey Olympians Zafar Iqbal, Rajinder Singh (Sr) and multiple gold madallist at the Commonwealth and Asian Games Milkha Singh.

The Delhi Tourism ''Countdown Bus'', which carried the distinguished sportspersons would make a round journey of the city passing through Connaught Place, Delhi Gate, Delhi University, Dhaula Kuan and end at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

Speaking on the occasion, Ms Dikshit said the 2010 Games was an opportunity for the people of the capital and the country to show that Delhi is the best city in the world.

Mr Sharma said hosting of the Games would be a historic occasion and the Government of India would offer full support to the IOA and other sports bodies in their effort to make 2010 Games the best ever.

He also said that the Union Government had written to various Asian countries to support Delhi's bid to host the Asian Games in 2014.

Mr Kalmadi, who is also the chairman of Commonwealth Organising Committee, said besides endeavoring to organise successful Games, the focus would be to ensure that India produce the best ever performance and collect a large haul of medals.

Later, Mr Kalmadi told reporters that preparations for the Games are on schedule and IOA and other sports bodies like Sports Authority of India (SAI) will begin in right earnest to provide world class infrastructure and training facilities to Indian athletes.

He also lauded the efforts of Indian Army towards providing better infrastructure and training to the athletes and said IOA would take Army's help if necessary.

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