Commonwealth Games invite Stephen Kiprotich

By James Bakama

The Commonwealth Games are the latest in the ever growing list of events that want a share of Stephen Kiprotich.

The Commonwealth Games Federation (CGF) has made it very clear that it can’t imagine hosting the 2014 games in Glasgow without the Olympic gold medalist.

“Uganda should bring him to Glasgow. He is an icon that must be in Glasgow. Glasgow 2014 deserves his presence,” requested 2nd

Imran made the appeal after closing a CGF general assembly at Speke Resort Munyonyo, which climaxed weeklong regional meetings and workshops involving delegates from 67 countries.

Kiprotich shot into international headlines in August when he became the only Ugandan after John Akii-Bua to win an Olympic gold medal for Uganda.

He won the men’s marathon in two hours 08.01 minutes on the last day of the London Games.

Inclusion of women’s boxing in the Commonwealth was one of the landmark decisions of the assembly. The Glasgow games will have women represented three weight categories while men have 10 weight divisions.

Women will feature in the flyweight (48-51kg), Lightweight (57-60kg) and middleweight (69-75kg) – the same events as London 2012.

The CGF Assembly also endorsed changes to the Lawn Bowls Competition format which will now include four medal events for men and women. This change reflects more closely the formats of world championships conducted by World Bowls.

Imran revealed that they are also exploring ways of introducing incentives that will further boost interest in the games. The Commonwealth are the second biggest multi-discipline games after the Olympics.

Chairman of Glasgow 2014 organising committee Lord Smith said they preparations for the games are on course. “We have done 70% of the necessary work. We will have test events before the games.

Organisers of the Gold Coast 2018 edition chairman Nigel Chamier also said they are on course. They have allocated a billion Australian dollars towards the games.

These games were initially known as the British Empire Games. They were renamed to the British Empire and Commonwealth Games in 1954 and the British Commonwealth Games in 1970, before finally gaining its current title for the 1978 edition.

They are overseen by the CGF, which also controls the sporting programme and selects the host cities. A host city is selected for each edition and eighteen cities in seven countries have hosted the event.