Commonwealth Games are stepping stone for other major events

 KUALA LUMPUR (CP) -- Ask athletes why the Commonwealth Games are important and they talk about sharing lunch with people from Namibia and having fun in a pressure-free atmosphere.
 All well and good for a vacation, but are the 67-year-old Games still relevant as a major sports event?
 Most coaches and athletes agree the Games' are like a training ground. It gives many competitors their first taste of a multi-sports event and prepares them for the rigours of an Olympics.
 "It's a stepping stone," said John Thresher, president of Athletics Canada.
 "Here is a chance to blood 18- and 19-year-olds. They have to come here and be scared out of their wits. They shake and shiver and then go on to world championships and Olympics."
 National swim coach Dave Johnson said the Games puts Canada in the water against swimmers from Australia and Great Britain, two of the best in the world aside from the United States and Germany.
 "Whenever you get together you're always going to have world class competitive events," said Johnson, who saw his swimmers win 21 medals, two more than four years ago in Victoria.
 "The racing at this Games was very good and the skills you need to have to be successful here are the same skills you need to have at higher levels like the Olympic Games and world championships."
 Michael Fennell, chairman of the Commonwealth Games Federation, said the escalation of other multi-sport events and big-cash track meets have stolen some of the Games' lustre.
 "One of the things that needs to be done by the world's sporting organizations, the IOC and the international federations and people who run regional games, is sit down and see how they can rationalize a program of sports throughout the world," he said.
 "There are a lot of events that are clashing and competing with each other to the detriment of sport."
 This year's Commonwealth Games were plagued by no-shows from some of the world's best athletes -- including Canada's Donovan Bailey (100 metres) and Curtis Myden and Shannon Shakespeare (swimming).
 "Any event has that same problem. But others came and the performances were excellent," said Fennell.
 "We've got to work on it. We cannot sit back and say we have the Games and everyone must come. We will be working at it to make sure people recognize its relevance."
 Olympic heroes like Bailey, Mark Tewkesbury and British decathlon legend Daley Thompson and have all competed at past Games.
 The Kuala Lumpur Games could be the stepping stone for future Olympic stars like diver Alexandre Despatie, synchronized swimmer Valerie Hould-Marchand and cyclist Lyne Bessette.
 Diver Eryn Bulmer, who won gold and bronze here and is a medal prospect in the 2000 Olympics, said the Commonwealth Games are more than a holiday.
 "The environment is the same as an Olympics," she said. "You have the crowds, you have lots of people. It's easy to be distracted. You learn to block all that out, stay focused."