Drama in a Sri Lankan hotel

Published on Friday 9 November 2007 16:21

AFTER three years and more of campaigning, the moment had arrived. Well, almost.

The 71 votes – one for every member country of the Commonwealth – had been cast. The ballot box had been escorted from the ballroom of the Cinnamon Grand Hotel had its innards removed and counted, then returned.

Mike Fennell, the president of the Commonwealth Games Federation, was handed the envelope in which the name of the host city for the 2014 Games was printed on a slip of paper.

He began to open it, then paused, and looked up and grinned disingenuously at the room, with a Glasgow delegation in one corner Abuja in the other, waiting on tenterhooks.

"Anybody got any questions?" Fennell asked cruelly, stretching the tension close to breaking point. Then, seconds later, he put his serious face back on and announced that Glasgow had won – by 47 votes to 24.

The Scottish delegation erupted into celebrations, some weeping with sheer relief after a long fight, others going straight into party mode. So much painstaking planning had gone into the victory, and seven years of meticulous organisation will have to follow, but for now it was about enjoying a hard-fought win.

Current and former athletes were there, among them the Commonwealth Games medallist Jamie Quarry, whose speech in the city's final presentation to the delegates had been so well received. Steve Frew, Lee McConnell, Shirley Webb and others were also there, having played their part as members of the athletes' commission which had ensured Glasgow's bid would be the most competitive friendly in the history of the Games.

Alex Salmond, the First Minister, and Steven Purcell, the leader of Glasgow City Council, normally political opponents, had also taken part in the presentation, helping persuade the delegates that, while the Games should indeed soon go to Africa for the first time, the Nigerian capital in 2014 was not the right time. This was, quite simply, a resounding success, the repercussions of which will be felt in Glasgow and throughout Scotland for a considerable time to come.

Buy Saturday's Scotsman for full coverage from both Sri Lanka and Glasgow