Commonwealth Games: S Africa, Canada put up their hands for 2022

Keryn Smith

Concerns over the future of the Commonwealth Games beyond 2018 have been at least partially allayed.

The Gold Coast is hosting the event in four years, but until recently there were no bids on the table for 2022, leading to speculation that the Commonwealth Games Federation might have to take a hard look at the years ahead.

Now two cities - Durban and Edmonton - have put in bids for 2022.

The Canadian city hosted the 1978 Commonwealth Games, but they've never been held in South Africa, even back in the days when they were known as the Empire Games, from 1930 to 1966.

If Edmonton won the right to host the games - to be decided at a CGF meeting in Auckland next year - it would be the sixth time Canada has hosted an Olympic or Commonwealth Games, dating back to the Empire Games in Hamilton, Ontario in 1930.

The other four occasions were 1954 (Vancouver, Empire Games), 1976 (Montreal, Olympics), 1978 (Edmonton, Commonwealths) and 1994 (Victoria, British Columbia, Commonwealths).

"I think it's really good news, and particularly to see South Africa entering the race," New Zealand Olympic Committee chief executive Keryn Smith said yesterday.

"They are contemplating an Olympic bid, and this 2022 bid is really a precursor to that. I think it's really healthy.

"I don't know if there's been two bids on the table so early before, and it shows a real sense of optimism about the future of the Commonwealth Games."

Smith said that while there had been whisperings that the South Africans were preparing a bid, the Canadian entry was a surprise.

South Africa hosted the rugby World Cup of 1995 and football's World Cup in 2010, proof it has enlarged its ambitions on the international sports stage.

"Clearly they have the infrastructure and capability to run those events and are now looking to maximise that," Smith said.

The NZOC will talk to both bidding cities' representatives at a CGF meeting over a couple of days before the Games begin in Scotland on July 23.