D-Day for Doha

THE excitement is palpable and the tension unbearable as Qatar awaits its tryst with Olympic history when the International Olympic Committee (IOC) reveals its Candidate City shortlist for the 2016 Games in Athens today. The announcement is due at 6.30pm.
Seven cities – Doha, Madrid, Chicago, Baku, Tokyo, Rio de Janerio and Prague – are bidding to host the quadrennial sporting showpiece in eight years’ time, but at least two would be thrown out of the race when the ‘Lords of the Olympic Rings’ led by IOC president Jacques Rogge sit down to decide their fate.
The general consensus among bid-watchers is that the Caspian Sea resort city of Baku, the capital of Azerbaijan and Prague, the Czech capital, would fail to make the list because of various factors ranging from lack of preparation and poor government support to traffic congestion and pollution.
The novelty of the first-ever bid from an Arab country apart, Qatar’s growing credentials as a booming place in tune with the ideals of the modern world should see Doha’s bid through to the final phase which culminates in Copenhagen in October next year when the host is named.
The fact that the IOC has not revealed how many cities would make the shortlist has added to the tension of the bid teams who have assembled in the Greek capital which hosted the first modern Olympics in 1896 and also the hugely successful 2004 event.
“I would think four or five,” IOC executive board member Gerhard Heiberg said when asked how many cities are expected to survive the chop.
Qatar has already announced that it would do “what no other host city has done before” in delivering the “best-ever” Games in the history of the Olympics.
With Doha living up to its similar promise of hosting the “biggest and best Asian Games in history” in 2006 when the world watched in admiration, especially its spectacular opening and closing ceremonies, Qatar’s 2016 bid is as serious as it could be.
“I would like to thank HH the Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani and HH the Heir Apparent Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad al-Thani who have set our country on a monumental modernisation programme to become a role model for economic and social transformation in the region,” said Doha bid chairman Hassan Ali bin Ali.
“His Highness the Emir has played an extremely active role in promoting and developing sport in Qatar. His support has enhanced the country’s involvement and performance in international competitions,” he added.
Doha has always stressed that the Olympic Games are all about creating understanding, hope and change that could “unite the entire region with the rest of the world.”
“Bringing the Olympic flame to the Arabic-speaking world for the first time would help in extending the Games ideals to millions of new hearts and minds,” Ali bin Ali said.
“Our vision for the Games will be focused on our shared future – the world’s youth – particularly those disadvantaged either economically or through disability.”
The Olympic bid race is a lengthy affair and with no clear-cut rules governing the process, often the favourites have fallen by the wayside on the final D-Day.
“I look at it as, ‘This is it. It’s a sprint from June 4 until October 2009,’” Chicago bid leader Patrick Ryan told reporters.
“We’re feeling a bit like everyone else — cautious, uncertain and hopeful. We’re going into this assuming nothing. We just hope we’ll be honoured to be on the shortlist.”
Although Chicago is considered a “frontrunner”, the US Olympic Committee chief executive Jim Scherr is wary of the tag.
“It’s not to the advantage of the bid to be the frontrunners. Front runners haven’t done too well in this vote,” Scherr said recently.
When the race for the 2012 Olympics was on, Paris was the overwhelming favourite early on only to be beaten by London in the final vote.
The 2016 bid is also seen as a battle of the continents, but Tokyo and Madrid insist their bids shouldn’t suffer because Beijing is hosting the Games this year and London in 2012.
“The rotation of the continents is not a hard and fast rule,” the Spanish capital’s bid chief Mercedes Coghen said.
All cities have promised a compact Games with the majority of the venues located inside 10km from the Olympic Village.
The Doha bid committee also argues that Qatar winning the Games would contribute to Middle East peace efforts and help alter perceptions about the Arab world.
For Qatar, it is all about “Celebrating Change”.
Qatar couldn’t have chosen a better slogan to drive its Olympic dreams and it would be nothing short of a “Greek tragedy” if the Doha-2016 Bid fails to get past the first hurdle.

Published: Wednesday, 4 June, 2008, 01:57 AM Doha Time

Source : Gulf-Times