Scotland's teams face anxious week as they await Commonwealth fate

Published on Monday 5 October 2009 22:52

SCOTLAND'S hockey, netball and seven-a-side rugby teams should learn this week if they will be invited to compete at next year's Commonwealth Games in Delhi. Invitations to the rugby and hockey teams are expected to be rubber-stamped by the Commonwealth Games Council for Scotland (CGCS) in the near future.

But the netball team, even if they receive an invitation from the Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF), will face a fight to convince Scottish team managers they are worthy of their seats on the plane.

With just under a year to go before the start of the 2010 Games, the ruling body of the four-yearly event, the CGF, is meeting this week in Delhi. Its invitations to participate in rugby sevens, hockey and netball will be based on world rankings, and it is by no means certain that Scotland will be invited in every case.

As the rugby sevens is a 16-team competition, Scotland will make it. Ten teams will be invited in both the men's and women's hockey tournaments, and our men's and women's sides are expected to qualify based on their rankings.

There will be 12 teams in the netball tournament, and Scotland's position in the world rankings is right on the edge of eligibility. The CGCS reserves the right not to send a team if it believes there is not a good enough chance of their finishing in the top eight. Netball was the only sport in which Scotland had no representation at the last Games, in Melbourne in 2006.

That top-eight place – which translates in sports such as swimming and athletics into qualification for the final – is the key criterion any individual or team must meet if they want to be included in the Scottish contingent. The qualifying times which have been set on the track and in the pool have been set with a top-eight finish in mind: if you make those times, the authorities estimate you will have a chance of getting to the final.

Team Scotland, as it will be known, is projected to have between 200 and 220 members, but the finance is in place to take more if a greater number meet the qualifying criteria. "If we get more, we'll be absolutely delighted," said Jon Doig, the chief executive of the CGCS.

As part of his job, Doig will be the Scottish chef de mission – or team leader – in Delhi, and is there this week for the CGF meeting. It will be the third site visit for Doig. The CGCS has also provided funding for some probable members of the Scottish team to visit the venue, with archers, swimmers and rugby players among those who have either recently visited or will soon do so.

Membership of Team Scotland will not be finalised until the end of next July, but many competitors have already achieved the qualifying standard. Thirteen athletes have done so, for instance, some on far more than one occasion, as have 15 swimmers.

Scotland's archers won four medals at the recent Asian Grand Prix, so can expect to field a small team in that sport, which has been added to the programme along with tennis and wrestling. Basketball and triathlon have been dropped from Melbourne.

The general team management for the Scottish contingent is in place, and includes six doctors and ten physiotherapists. And of the 17 sports which will comprise the Games, 15 team leaders have already been appointed.

The 17 sports on the Delhi schedule – one more than in Australia in 2006 – are: aquatics (swimming and diving), archery, athletics, badminton, bowls, boxing, cycling, gymnastics, hockey, netball (women only), rugby sevens (men only), shooting, squash, table tennis, tennis, weightlifting and wrestling.