London : The list of pull outs continued as on Friday, as four British cyclists and one from New Zealand pulled out of the Oct 3-14 Commonwealth Games citing security and health concerns.
They include Welsh World and Olympic champion Geraint Thomas, Peter Kennaugh, Ben Swift and Ian Stannard of the UK and former world champion Greg Henderson of New Zealand.
Henderson is the first New Zealand athlete to decide not to attend the Games, reports said.
The cyclist cited issues like the substandard athletes’ village and dengue to skip the sports event.
Henderson was sixth in the road race at the 2006 Melbourne Commonwealth Games.
His medals all came on the track, comprising a points race gold and team pursuit bronze at the 2002 Games in Manchester, and bronze in those same events at Kuala Lumpur four years earlier.
Henderson said there were “too many risks” in going to Delhi while the performance director of British Cycling said their riders had pull out on their own.
According to a New Zealand Herald report, Henderson informed BikeNZ that he had changed his mind about competing at the Games, making him the first selected New Zealand athlete to do so.
“It’s not all about Greg Henderson, I’ve got a family now,” he told NZPA.
“I have to put them first and I don’t feel 100 percent sure about the environment over there. I look at it and think would I like (wife) Katie or (one-year-old son) Charlie competing over there and the answer is obviously no. I’ve got to put myself in their shoes and weight up if it’s worth that much.
“Anything could happen over there. Is my career, is cycling, worth it?”
Meanwhile, despite several pullouts and reservations on the filthy living conditions at the Games Village, several participating nations, including England, due to compete at the event, have started arriving.
Commonwealth Games Federation chief Mike Fennell on Friday inspected the Village and said he noticed “considerable improvements” ahead of the October 3-14 event.
The Games village, which is meant to house more than 7,000 athletes and officials and have become a major embarrassment owing to poor living conditions, opened on Thursday with 160 Indian athletes and sports officials moving in, organisers said.