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Australian world champ pulls out of Commonwealth Games: Report
AFP, Sep 21, 2010
SYDNEY: Australian discus world champion Dani Samuels has pulled out of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next month because of security and health concerns, her coach was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Her decision follows a gun attack on a tourist bus outside a famous mosque in New Delhi on Sunday, which has added to security woes ahead of the October 3-14 Games in the Indian capital.
AAP said she was the first Australian athlete to pull out over security and health fears.
"Dani is extremely distressed about it all," Samuels' manager Hayden Knowles told the agency.
"The situation in Delhi has been bothering her for some time... But the events over the weekend made it real," he said.
Samuels, 22, won the gold medal in discus throwing in the 2009 World Championships in Germany.
Knowles said he hoped her decision to withdraw would not affect other Australian athletes, as that was not her intention.
"I wouldn't think she's got that much influence and she certainly doesn't want that," said Knowles.
"She found it hard to announce her decision because of how it might affect other athletes in the team.
"Many of them are really close friends and they don't know about this yet."
Indian officials have been repeatedly forced to defend security arrangements in New Delhi ahead of the Games, a multi-sport event that brings together athletes from countries mostly from the former British empire.
Two Taiwanese men were wounded when attackers on a motorbike opened fire with a sub-machine gun on the bus outside the Jama Masjid mosque on Sunday.
Meanwhile an outbreak of dengue fever has concerned participating nations, with the number of people affected in the capital since July rising to 1,652.
AFP, Sep 21, 2010
SYDNEY: Australian discus world champion Dani Samuels has pulled out of the Commonwealth Games in New Delhi next month because of security and health concerns, her coach was quoted as saying on Tuesday.
Her decision follows a gun attack on a tourist bus outside a famous mosque in New Delhi on Sunday, which has added to security woes ahead of the October 3-14 Games in the Indian capital.
AAP said she was the first Australian athlete to pull out over security and health fears.
"Dani is extremely distressed about it all," Samuels' manager Hayden Knowles told the agency.
"The situation in Delhi has been bothering her for some time... But the events over the weekend made it real," he said.
Samuels, 22, won the gold medal in discus throwing in the 2009 World Championships in Germany.
Knowles said he hoped her decision to withdraw would not affect other Australian athletes, as that was not her intention.
"I wouldn't think she's got that much influence and she certainly doesn't want that," said Knowles.
"She found it hard to announce her decision because of how it might affect other athletes in the team.
"Many of them are really close friends and they don't know about this yet."
Indian officials have been repeatedly forced to defend security arrangements in New Delhi ahead of the Games, a multi-sport event that brings together athletes from countries mostly from the former British empire.
Two Taiwanese men were wounded when attackers on a motorbike opened fire with a sub-machine gun on the bus outside the Jama Masjid mosque on Sunday.
Meanwhile an outbreak of dengue fever has concerned participating nations, with the number of people affected in the capital since July rising to 1,652.
