After more than a week's wait, the training equipment belonging to the Australian contingent for the Delhi Commonwealth Games has finally been released by the Indian port authorities in Mumbai.
According to a report in the Daily Telegraph, the container arrived at the port of Mumbai on September 6 but a shipping backlog meant that the delivery of the equipment was delayed.
The shipment contained poles belonging to champion vaulter Steve Hooker, along with other training equipment, medical supplies and furniture for the Australian Commonwealth Games Association to set up headquarters during the October 3 to 14 event in Delhi.
The ACGA sought help from India's high commissioner to Australia Sujatha Singh, who duly obliged. ACGA chief executive Perry Crosswhite said he received an e-mail on Saturday morning confirming that the equipment was in the process of being delivered to Delhi.
"The ship had docked overnight (Friday), the container had been taken off and straight away it had been cleared," Crosswhite said. The two to three-day journey, a security check of the container in Delhi and transport to the athletes village should have the equipment to the team by Friday.
"The normal wait time at a port is around three to four days, which means the equipment will arrive more than a week late and in the nick of time. Crosswhite said the athletes would begin landing in Delhi from September 27.
"As far as setting up our medical operation, our doctors and all of them come in on the Friday so we'll be ready for them to set up. "If we meet that timetable there's no issue. The athletes don't start arriving until September 27. It put us on notice that we've got to be on top of every movement and every logistical thing, and just following it up all the time to make sure that it gets done in the time we need it," Crosswhite said.
"We're just going to have to work harder. That's probably what its going to come down to."