Games - Grenada beach volleyballers given police escort after bus mishap

GOLD COAST, Australia (Reuters) - Commonwealth Games organisers have said they will put more staff on buses to avoid navigational mishaps after the Grenada women's beach volleyball team was late for their event due to a bungled global positioning system code.

Games - Grenada beach volleyballers given police escort after bus mishap

(Reuters)





The team were headed to their event at Coolangatta beach in the Gold Coast on Friday but instead were routed to the Anna Meares Velodrome in Brisbane, the venue of the track cycling events some 102 km (63 miles) away.

After the mistake was realised, the bus was turned back and they were given a police escort to ensure they could compete in time. They told local broadcaster Nine network they had only 15 minutes to change and get ready, however.

"We didn't get sufficient time to warm up, we had to try and stretch and warm up on the bus which was kind of difficult -- although we enjoyed (the police escort)," team member Thornia Williams said after their 21-8 21-11 pool round loss to Scotland.

Gold Coast organising committee CEO Mark Peters said any distraction of athletes caused by their operations was "unacceptable".

"The bus driver punched in the wrong code and was heading up to Brisbane and the bus was turned around and came back," he told a media briefing on Saturday.

"The athletes were in the bus longer than they should have been."

"They actually wanted selfies taken with the police officers before they went in (to the venue) so they were pretty relaxed.

"We spoke to them again last night because this is the worst thing you want as an organising committee, to have athletes being distracted in any way.

"We are now ensuring that we have two people on the buses, the driver and somebody else to ensure that directionally, that doesn't happen again."

Games organisers apologised on Thursday after a major transport failure saw thousands of ticket-holders delayed for hours when trying to get to and from the opening ceremony at Carrara Stadium.









(Editing by Greg Stutchbury)


Share

2 min read

Published

Source: Reuters



Share this with family and friends


Get SBS News daily and direct to your Inbox

Sign up now for the latest news from Australia and around the world direct to your inbox.

By subscribing, you agree to SBS’s terms of service and privacy policy including receiving email updates from SBS.

Download our apps
SBS News
SBS Audio
SBS On Demand

Listen to our podcasts
An overview of the day's top stories from SBS News
Interviews and feature reports from SBS News
Your daily ten minute finance and business news wrap with SBS Finance Editor Ricardo Gonçalves.
A daily five minute news wrap for English learners and people with disability
Get the latest with our News podcasts on your favourite podcast apps.

Watch on SBS
SBS World News

SBS World News

Take a global view with Australia's most comprehensive world news service
Watch the latest news videos from Australia and across the world