McNish's lucky escape

SCOTTISH racing driver Allan McNish was lucky to escape unharmed from a serious accident which marred this weekend’s Le Mans 24 Hours race in France.  The Le Mans event is the pinnacle of the sportscar calendar, but it nearly ended in tragedy which would have bought echoes of the 1955 disaster, when spectators were killed by a Mercedes car crashing into the crowd.

     McNish, a former Toyota Formula One driver in 2002 and twice a winner of the Le Mans 24 Hours, was driving one of the favourite Audi cars, alongside Rinaldo Capello and Danish legend Tom Kristensten.  Just over an hour into the event and McNish was challenging for third place, when he clipped a backmarker car.  Allan, 41, was turned around by the Ferrari GT entry of Pierre Thiriet and Francois Jakubowski, driven by Frenchman Anthony Beltoise.  It was a minimal connection, but the sequence of events afterwards was frightening.  Fans favourite McNish had no control as his prototype careered across the gravel trap, appearing not to lose any speed whatsoever.  At approximately 120mph, he smashed into the tyre barriers, shredding wheels, debris and other pieces of carbon fibre all over the place.  Stewards and photographers, hoping to have a quiet day or take the stunning landscape shot, were suddenly running for their lives.  Although his car was a complete write-off, McNish was helped out of the cockpit relatively unharmed, with just a bruised shin and a shaking. 

     Inside the pits and the Audi mechanics looked like they’d seen a ghost, some close to tears as they feared the worst.  He was given the all-clear by the Audi team doctor and trackside staff at the La Sarthe circuit.  McNish admitted he was fortunate to walkaway afterwards;

“I have to say a big thank you to the designers of Audi.  They’ve produced a car that can have an impact that is enormous and the driver pops the door and gets out perfectly well.  Considering the impact, the speed and everything else, I think we all got away quite fortunate.”

     Audi had an emotional weekend, as Mike Rockenfeller suffered a 200mph crash on the Mulsanne Straight on Saturday evening.  He was kept in hospital overnight as a precaution, but is thought to be like McNish, relatively unharmed.  It ended on a happy note for the German manufacturer, as their other car, driven by Marcel Fassler, Benoit Treluyer and Andre Lotterer beat the leading Peugeot of Pedro Lamy, Sebastian Bourdais and Simon Pagenaud by just 15 seconds.  Britain’s best finisher was Anthony Davidson.  Davidson, also in a Peugeot finished fourth with fellow former F1 racers Marc Gene and Alexander Wurz. 

     However, the 2011 Le Mans 24 Hours will only be remembered for Allan McNish’s lucky escape.

Commonwealth Chaos

Delhi has taken an absolute battering in the worldwide media, due to its complete lack of disorganisation and preparation that has threatened to completely destroy the Commonwealth Games.  This week’s events have been nothing short of a disgrace, and although some athletes have pulled out for safety reasons, it is surprising that all 71 countries look set to take part in the showpiece event in India which starts next Sunday.

The first signs of trouble were highlighted by concerns over security levels for the athletes around the city, in case terrorists struck.  Next, there were rumours of the standard of accommodation in the athletic village simply not being upto scratch.  Then on Tuesday afternoon, a footbridge collapsed near the main stadium, injuring twenty-three people, the majority being workers on the site.  Five of these were taken to hospital with critical injuries, though luckily, there were no fatalities.  Government officials said that the bridge had been weakened by heavy rain within the area of recent.  Since then, the roof at the weightlifting area has also collapsed, though no-one was hurt in this relatively ‘minor’ incident.

World and European triple jump champion Phillips Idowu has pulled out of the defence of his Commonwealth title that he brilliantly won in Melbourne four years ago.  He announced the news on his Twitter homepage.

"I can't afford to risk my safety in the slightest.  "All the press today about bridges collapsing and 23+ people being hurt, floods and inhabitable living conditions, getting my daughter ready for school this morning and seeing all of that put me off.  "So statements like toughen up, I'm toughening up, was a tough choice to make but I made it for my children."

Pictures attained by the BBC on Friday afternoon showed the state that some of the accommodation is in.  To be honest, a typical room at University’s Halls of Residence looks better, so no wonder why Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has entered into the debate, by saying that “time is running out.”  However, it does look like the Games have been pulled back from the brink of being totally obliterated by the travelling nations.

Competitors were due to start arriving in preparation for the games on Thursday.  After consultation with the leading delegates from all sports taking place, the English team began leaving for Delhi on Friday afternoon, with another batch due to fly out tomorrow.  The Scottish, Australian and Canadian teams, who had all delayed their journeys out to Asia, before getting absolute total guarantee of necessary improvements, are all on the way out to the location in the next 48 hours.  The only question mark of a country participating seems to be the New Zealand team, who seem to have been the country that has been the most outspoken about the events over the past five days.

The English team will also be missing the likes of Mo Farah, Jessica Ennis and Lisa Dobrinsky.  All four will not be competing due to fatigue of injuries, though Dobrinsky’s absence is also thought to be around a safety issue.  Sprinting ace Usain Bolt will also not take part in the games for Jamaica, due to injury.

Considering that India was awarded the Commonwealth Games for 2010 way back in 2004, this is a startling story, but one that doesn’t surprise many.  Warnings were adhered last year, and don’t seem to have been taken seriously by the Indian government.  To me, although it can make for fantastic television, I think the Commonwealth Games are largely a waste of time, especially when so many top stars pull out of what used to be such a star-studied event on the sporting calendar every four years.  I just hope that when the Commonwealth Games begin next Sunday, the two weeks of competition will go off without a hitch and make all the messy and confrontational build-up a storm in a teacup.  However, that may take quite a bit of convincing for many experts and fans across the world.