Athletes cheer Games bid

Some of Halifax's top track athletes say they'll bechased out of the city if critics of the Commonwealth Games bid have their way.

Sprinter Adrienne Power cringes each time she hears people say the cost of hosting the international sporting event is too high and the city should give up on the bid.

"I just feel like they don't understand the whole scope,"she told CBC News. "We need to stop looking at this as a price tag."

Power, from the Eastern Shore, is on the national track team and is an Olympic hopeful for 2008. She's one of about five elite track athletes in Halifax.

Unlike others at her level who have moved to national training centres in Ottawa, Edmonton or Victoria, Power has chosen to remain in Halifax and hopes to one day start a similar centre in her home province.

She's banking on a successful bid for the 2014 Commonwealth Games, which would bring training facilities and funding for elite athletes in the region.

Winning the Games is theonly way Halifax will get the money to upgrade its aging sports facilities anytime soon, said Ken Bagnell,director of Canadian Sport Centre Atlantic, a group trying toattract and support elite athletes in Nova Scotia.

"It's the one way to bring finances from other levels of government, from private sector and so forth into the funding formula," Bagnell said.

It's possible to get the necessary funding if Halifax won the right to hostthe Canada Summer Games, he added, but theearliestthat event could come to Nova Scotia would be 2038.

Middle-distance runner Heather Henniger said critics of the Commonwealth Games bid don't understand how desperate the situation is for elite athletes who have madesacrifices to train atHalifax'sonly indoor track.

The track at Dalhousie University's Dalplex has only two lanes and about 15 corners, a far cry fromthe standard six-lane, 200-metre oval her competitors at the national training centres practice on.

"Athletes are generally encouraged to go elsewhere to train. I don't believe that we can't do it from here. I have a lot of faith in people being able to train here," said Hennigar, who is from the Annapolis Valley.

But without the support of the community, she added, that will never happen

Some estimates put the cost of the Games at more than $1 billion, leading some people to say it's an event the city just can't afford. Several municipal councillors have threatened to pull their support if Halifax's share of the bill is too high.

Hennigar and Powersay they don't want the city to do anything it can't afford, but urge people towait until the actual numbers aremade public before making up their minds.

People should think ahead to the needs of future generations, Power said.

"We need to keep our educated people here in Halifax. We need to keep our athletes here," she said.

Halifax is competing against Glasgow, Scotland, and Abuja, Nigeria, to host the Games in 2014.The winner will be announced in November.