Athletics Heats Off Due to Low Turnout

A lack of entries in many events in the athletics has forced Commonwealth Games organisers to refund £100,000 to spectators after they had to cancel a session for which 17,000 tickets had been sold.

But officials are promising that the rest of the programme will carry on as normal despite there being fewer competitors in some events than there were in the boycotted Edinburgh games of 1986.

A number of heats and qualifying rounds have been scrapped in many events because there are not enough athletes to justify them. For example, there are only nine entrants in the 3,000 metres steeplechase, 10 in the women's 10,000m and 10 in the men's pole vault. All will now be held as straight finals.

First-round heats of the men's and women's sprint hurdles and 1500m and qualification for the women's high jump have been scrapped from the morning timetable of July 29 at the City of Manchester Stadium.

Spectators with tickets for that session were offered alternative sports, such as hockey and bowls, but most opted to have their money returned instead.

"We've cancelled one session and moved events around," said Brian Stocks, the director of competitions. "But the Commonwealth Games is a highly sponsored event and we are not relying on ticket revenue to balance the books. No more morning sessions will be cancelled.

"We are not worried about it. The athletics programme at the games will be a roaring success."

More than 80% of tickets for the 17 sports have been sold, a record for the Commonwealth Games. The most popular are tickets for the athletics programme which runs from Friday to next Wednesday - it has been given an earlier than usual slot to assist athletes going on to the European Championships - and every evening session has sold out.

More than 800 competitors are entered for the athletics events - comparable to Kuala Lumpur in 1998 - but even so spectators in the 38,000-capacity stadium, who may have paid up to £40 for a ticket, face the prospect at times of nothing to watch but replays on one of the stadium's three giant screens.

"We will reschedule the programme to minimise the gaps. We are running a very tight programme," said Stocks. "We want to give people value for money. There will be replays on the big screen if there are live sessions with gaps."

At least not everyone will be unhappy to have heats cancelled. England's Paula Radcliffe, for example, will now have to run only one race in her quest for gold in the 5,000m, whose Friday heats are also scrapped. There will now be a straight final on Sunday, leaving her fresher to concentrate on her preparations for the Europeans in Munich next month.

The Commonwealth Games Federation's chairman Mike Fennell has defended the participation of the Zimbabwe team despite the country's one-year suspension from Commonwealth gatherings after President Robert Mugabe's disputed re-election.

Fennell, the Commonwealth's senior sports official, said the issue had not rated a mention either privately or publicly at the federation's general assembly yesterday.

"They are eligible for anything, like any other member, because the Zimbabwe Olympic Association ... and sports people of Zimbabwe have not breached any of our rules," he said.

"It is not our business to get involved in politics. Zimbabwe have been suspended from the councils of the Commonwealth. I believe Pakistan are in the same position but they are still a member of the Commonwealth."