ABC commentator Glen Mitchell is an avid cycling fan, and calls the sport superbly, but yesterday he maybe let his emotions run away with him.
He was calling Western Australia’s first athlete at the Commonwealth Games to win a gold medal, Scott Sunderland winning the men’s 1000m time trial, and when he realised that he had broken the Commonwealth Games record of Scotland great Sir Chris Hoy, he said that Sir Chris had “Boycotted” the games.
Boycotted would mean that he had decided not to attend as a form of protest, when in truth he along with other British cyclists opted to withdraw from the games in favour of the European Championships in a fortnight.
There is no doubt this decision is very sad for the Commonwealth Games and if they are to continue to be held in high regard the selectors of the various countries athletes need to address this. A simple way would be if you do not attend these games, you cannot represent us at the European event. But sadly money talks and ultimately as we see with so many sports the athletes hold the balance of power.
