Victoria, Canada 1994 pt 3

After all the planning back home in England, the application to the Commonwealth Relations Trust, the travel and everything else, this was it. The Games were here and I was going to be there for Day 1.

Everyone knew that certain things were running late and the final bits were still being put in place as we arrive and I show my press pass to get into the press centre in the main games stadium.

Over the past couple of weeks I had taken my, newly purchased, camcorder everywhere with me. This was going to be my record of the games and I was determined to produce a video on my return to the UK.

One copy was going to go to the Commonwealth Relations Trust while the other was to be presented to Sir Bob Scott of the Manchester Games Committee, for their records.

As I arrived in the press centre at the main stadium, I immediately got the impression that all was not well. Some of the international media who had travelled all from over the world to be here, were dissatisfied with the facilities. We were placed in a marqee of quite substantial size however TV monitors were in short supply, computers in even shorter supply and we were walking on the green grass of Victoria. Nobody thought to put a floor in place.

To be honest, not a lot of this posed a problem to me as since these were my first games I had no yard stick to judge it by. But others were less forgiving. The word was out and I started point my camcorder at anyone who would talk to me to get a feeling of what their greviences were.

Before long, I was taken to one side by the head of the press centre to be told that the press centre was a part of the games, and as such came under the remit of Rights holders and I would no longer be able to use my camcorder within the press centre. The host broadcaster, CBC, were the only ones allowed to bring cameras into the press centre.

This was quite an amazing statement as earlier in the planning we had been told categorically that the press centres were not a part of the Rights process as they had been built outside of the games centres to avoid any potential problems. No amount of pleading or arguing was going to change their mind, and for the rest of the games I was not allowed to remove the lens cap on my camcorder while in any of the press centres.

It was unbelievably fustrating to attend the press conference some days later, after the great Linford Christie had won the 100 metres and have to have only sound on the interview, despite the fact that he was siting literally 4 yards away from me. Oh WELL!!

It was of course an attempt to silence complaints about the facilities, but despite attempting to shut us up, they had taken notice. On arrival for Day 2, the scene was completely changed with a newly installed floor in place, more monitors, more computers and all’n’all a far more professional set-up.

However, back to the games and what an fantastic opening ceremony it was. The whole thing reflected on the history of Canada and was a tribute to its first nations. To be honest, one really did not get a full picture of the whole opening day of the games as there was so much going on. I remember phoning my wife back in the UK an asking her to make sure that she taped the whole thing so that I wouldn’t miss anything. The host broadcaster, The Canadian Broadcasting Company CBC, really did a fantastic job on that part of the games.

I spent the early part of Day 1 out back where the participants and athletes were lining up for the opening ceremony. This really was an unbelievable sight of laughter, colour, national dress and camaraderie. Perhaps the most excited team was the Australians who were convinced they were going to win everything. That kind of confidence should be bottled and sold.

The Games Organising Committee really did a fantastic job getting all of this together. Boy I hope Manchester were going to do as good a job as this. 2002 was still 8 years away and Kuala lumpa was going to happen before Manchester got to their games but all the way I was praying that we could do as good as this.

By the way, Manchester hadn’t even been awarded the games as yet.

The other stars on Day 1 were, not surprisingly, the hometown Canadians, a massive team, who were determined to have a good time, come what may. They were going to be the last team to enter the stadium.

The word was that Sir Bob Scott and his team were here and I was hoping to grab a quick chat with him at some point. I didn’t have to wait long.

Before heading into the stadium to take up my seat I saw something which I hadn’t realised the importance of when it actually happened. The British team had gone through and since this was an alphabetically organised event (with the exception of the home team) there were many other teams to go through. After the Brits had made their way out of my sight, I continued to interview and chat with other teams. After about 10/12 minutes, the only member of the British team whom I knew personally, came back out of the stadium and walked past me. She said that she wasn’t feeling well and was going back to to athletes village.

That person was Diane Modahl. Later I found out that she had been asked to leave by the British team management as she had allegedly had a positive drug test at an earlier games in Europe. This was the news that was going to dominate the early days of the 1994 Commonwealth Games in Victoria. Everybody wanted to know everything about her.

In fact, since I was doing reports back to The BAY in Lancaster, I had to be very careful as to what I could say, and on one ocassion I had to call the station back in the UK and listen to the news to find out what IRN (Independent Radio News) was saying before I could compile my report.

This was perhaps the saddest part of the games for me. This was a Manchester girl, it was the only person I knew personally in Victoria. She had taken the time to speak to me when she arrived at the airport, and I had felt exceptionally good about seeing her. But, once drugs was mentioned, the media were interested in one thing and one thing only.

I remember saying in one report back to the UK that 2 years earlier it was Canada who had the pain of having one of their top athletes, Ben Johnson, charged with drug taking. Now it was the turn of Manchester.

I sat in the official press conference when the announcement was made and prayed that Diane and the Commonwealth Games in Victoria would recover from this.

I am not sure if either ever did.