Track 'to be ready'

The repairs to the track at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium were required after it was used for Sunday's opening ceremony and workers toiled through the night and most of the day to meet the Wednesday evening deadline.

Kipsiro and former world champion Kipchoge made it all worthwhile with a top quality race which the Ugandan won in 13 minutes 31.25 seconds, 0.07 ahead of his rival.

"I knew I could win the race. It was not a surprise result," Kipsiro said. "I knew the last 800 would be crucial and it turned out to be so."

The middle and long distance races boast the best quality fields for an athletics programme weakened by the absence of top names like 100 and 200 metres world record holder Usain Bolt and his fellow Jamaican sprinter, Asafa Powell.

A sparse crowd, dominated mostly by Games volunteers, egged on the athletes at the floodlit stadium though most of the cheers were reserved for the Indian competitors.

Three hours before the eight-day athletics competition began an army of workers was still struggling to prepare the shot put ring, erect the net around the hammer ring, put up hoardings, and assemble the medal podiums.

One group were shovelling buckets of thick mud out of the steeplechase water jump and using a cycle-wheelbarrow contraption to ferry it away.

"In your country you have the technology, in ours we have the manpower. If we could put the two together what a team we would have!" one worker said.

Suresh Kalmadi, head of the local organising committee, said there had been no delays to the work at the 60,000 stadium after Sunday's opening ceremony.

"Work started the moment the opening ceremony got over," he said. "Over 1,000 people worked there till yesterday and the track is okay. You will not find anything to complain about this afternoon."