Swimming nations plan alternative ch`ship

Melbourne: The leading Commonwealth swimming nations, including Australia and Britain, have discussed

staging an alternative competition if next month`s Delhi Games are cancelled. The embattled organisers of the Delhi Games are racing against time to complete the pending work at the Games Village, which drew sharp criticism from the visiting delegations. A collapsed bridge, just before the main venue Jawaharlal Nehru stadium has already added to the woes of the orgainsers. New Zealand swimming`s high performance manager Jan Cameron said countries such as Australia, New Zealand, Britain and Canada have a "plan B" in their "back pocket" although they hope the situation does turn that bad. "I don`t expect it to come to that. We don`t have anything concrete and nor do we want to, but we are ready to move quickly should it come to that," Cameron told New Zealand radio. "That`s the likely scenario. But at the moment none of us are willing to go down that track other than to make sure in the back pocket we`ve got a Plan B," she said. "Australian head coach Leigh Nugent confirmed there had been discussions of an alternate swimming meet during the Pan Pacific championships in California last month, but no agreement had been reached," a report. Many star players have pulled out of the Games on security and health grounds. PTI