European Games Progress; ANOCA Assembly; Pan Ams Update

Euro NOCs Leader Reports "Positive" Moves for European Games

European Olympic Committees President Patrick Hickey tells Around the Rings that 15 continental sports federations are behind plans to organize a new European Games.

Hickey says meetings held in Rome last week with the federations were "extremely positive". Hickey has been leading the push to create a continental games in Europe along the lines of the Asian or Pan American Games.

He says the 15 federations at the Rome meeting included archery, badminton, boxing, canoeing, fencing, gymnastics, basketball, judo, modern pentathlon, sailing, shotting, table tennis and weightlifting.

The remaining Olympic sport federations will be consulted next month in Trabzon, Turkey at the European Youth Olympic Festival, Hickey says.

"There’s a great will to do something positive," is how Hickey assesses the mood among the European sports federations toward a continental Games.

Hickey’s plan for European Games may face it biggest challenge in finding a place on the crowded events calendar for the new addition.

Deloitte is conducting a feasibility study of the proposal, and sports marketing expert Andrew Craig is providing advice to Hickey and the EOC.

African NOCs Celebrate 30th Anniversary

The Association of National Olympic Committees of Africa celebrates its 30th anniversary in Lome, Togo – where the continental association was formed in 1981.

All 53 NOCs in Africa were expected for the two-day meeting.

Ivory Coast IOC member Lassana Palenfo is the ANOCA president.

The major item of business will be presentations Tuesday by the three cities bidding for the 2018 Winter Olympics. The ANOCA assembly is the last international presentation for the bids ahead of the IOC Session in Durban next week.

Also making presentations to the assembly will be the two bids for the 2018 Commonwealth Games as well as the organizers of the 2011 All-Africa Games and the 2012 Olympics.

Construction Back on Track, Says Pan Ams Chief

Guadalajara 2011 chief Carlos Andrade says no construction concerns remain ahead of the Pan American Games, now less than four months away.

"The 23 stadiums will be 100-percent ready by October 12," he said Friday in an interview with the Guadalajara Reporter. "The athletics stadium will be finished by the end of July, as will the rugby and canoeing venues. The Athletes Village is now being furnished so we have no concerns that it won’t be finished on time."

The future of the Village – and the Games as a whole – was briefly cast into doubt early last month when a Mexican magistrate barred furtherconstruction in response to complaints from the townspeople of nearbyZapopan that their supply of drinking water was at risk.

Despite the court-ordered work stoppage, the organizing committee COPAG kept its builders at work as its legal team scrambled to secure a suspension finally issued days later by a federal judge.

Also in Friday’s interview, Andrade addressed the security concerns stemming from drug violence throughout Mexico in recent years.

"I don’t believe that security is going to be a different issue here than it would be anywhere else in the world," he said.

"It’s the same as in New York or Rio de Janeiro, which actually has more violence than the whole of Mexico combined. Rio held the last Pan Americans with no problems, and will host the 2016 Olympics. We’re not over-confident but we know what we have to do."

With 36 sports on the program, Guadalajara 2011 is poised to be the largest multi-discipline event of the year as well as a qualifier for 15 of the 26 sports on the London Olympic program.

Arab Games Mascot

The 2011 Arab Games organizing committee will unveil its mascot on Monday.

"The date comes in coincidence with the meeting of the heads of Arab participating delegates here in Doha," said chief organizer Saoud Bin Abdulrahman Al Thani. "Accordingly, we have signed contracts for the event, as the test tournament will be held in October ."

Sheikh Saoud also confirmed that the committee is ready to host the Games.

Written by Ed Hula.