Let the Games begin

Team South Africa walked into Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in New Delhi blowing vuvuzelas at the opening ceremony of the 19th Commonwealth Games last night.

The glittering ceremony, attended by about 60,000 spectators, went off without any of the problems that have plagued the games thus far.

The ceremony began with fireworks as hundreds of men dressed in traditional Indian gear beat drums. Children dressed in gold painted large white sheets with red Hindi decorated hands.

Pretoria swimmer Cameron van den Berg led the South African team, hoping to get 40 medals, into the stadium carrying the flag.

South Africa's representation at the Games was, however, hard hit by the withdrawal of several top athletes.

The athletics squad, which was expected to bring home a haul of medals, was reduced to six from 11 at the weekend. The latest to withdraw was Olympic silver medallist Khotso Mokoena.

After telling The Times last week that he would be going to Delhi, the long-jumper failed to turn up when the athletics team left at the weekend.

He gave no excuse and did not respond to phone calls yesterday.

Athletics South Africa (ASA) said yesterday it would "deal" with Mokoena's no-show.

Sprinter Simon Magakwe withdrew on Friday, following Caster Semenya, who would have been a favourite for a medal in the women's 800m, and Mbulaeni Mulaudzi, a similar contender in the men's 800m.

This left South African athletics officials embarrassed by an all-white track and field team at the Games. James Evans, interim chairman of ASA, blamed it on the legacy of Leonard Chuene, the disgraced former president.

Evans said the development of athletes during the Chuene administration had been "nothing less than a joke".

The South African Olympic Committee, which oversees selections for the Olympics and Commonwealth Games, set strict qualifying standards for the Delhi event. This excluded black athletes like Luvo Maniyonga, the world junior long-jump champion, who is not among the top five in his event in the Commonwealth. Cornel Fredericks, a promising 400m hurdles runner, suffered a similar fate.

Describing the atmosphere among the team, Van den Berg said: "Someone must've put Prozac in the water."

South Africa's first gold medal hopefuls and defending champions of the 4x100m freestyle relay opted out of the parade yesterday to preserve energy for today's races.

Team spokesman Gary Lemke said that they couldn't "be on their feet" for too long and had watched the ceremony on a flat screen TV at the athlete's village.

While the games have not been without controversy, some South African athletes said it was not all a bed of roses.

The only able-bodied female swimmer at the games, 20-year-old Capetonian Wendy Trott, ranked fourth in the world for 800m freestyle (8:27:11), told The Times: "The village is quite obviously not completely ready but it is inhabitable, so that's fine."

Trott speculated that "a few more months" were needed to finish the preparations, but that "it would have been awesome."

Last week South African swimmer Roeland Schoeman complained on his arrival in the city that he did not have electricity in his room: "The electricity in my room is not working which means that the aircon is not working."

Schoeman said it was "not a good thing so close to competition" that he would not be able to sleep because of the heat.

After two days of intense heat he said he had "thrown his toys" and eventually an electrician was called to fix the air-conditioning.

The hosts have been careful to display the best parts of their city to their international guests.

"We don't get to see much of the real Delhi as I'm pretty sure they drive us only through the nice neighbourhoods, past all the embassies," said Trott, adding that it was "probably the longest route possible" to reach the swimming pool where the team were training.

With fears of a terrorist attack, Indian authorities deployed about 100000 police and reinforced security by 17000 paramilitary troops to ensure the safety of athletes and spectators.

Britain's Prince Charles declared the games officially open during the ceremony at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium.

The Times of London reported yesterday that specialist Swat teams were preparing for chemical and nuclear attacks and that the city was in "lock-down" as restaurants and shops were forced to close yesterday.

Lemke said that the team felt "safe" and some had said that there was "too much security".

He said that as the South African team left a press conference venue on Saturday, sniffer-dogs and an "anti-bomb terrorism type unit" were sent in to "secure" the room before the British team's press conference in the same room.

Lemke described this as a result of "English paranoia." - Additional reporting by The Times London