Entrant shortage threatens 'No Contest Games'

A lack of athletes at the Commonwealth Games is threatening to turn some events into virtual no contests where it will be statistically harder to walk away without a medal than to win one.

The most extreme example will come in the women's weightlifting next week when four competitors, including England's Jo Calvino and Scotland's Kirstie Law, will battle for three medals in the up-to-53kg category. In the women's weightlifting, which is making its Games debut here, there are 42 competitors across seven events vying for a total of 21 medals. That 50 per cent chance of a medal also applies in the men's wrestling.

In the diving events, where 33 men and women will compete for 12 medals in six events, the participants have a statistical chance of almost 40 per cent of winning a medal each. The 13 synchronised swimmers at the Games will split nine medals in two events (gold, silver and bronze in the solo, and pairs of each colour in the duet), giving each a theoretical 69 per cent chance of a prize.

In some athletics events, a dearth of competitors has already seen some sessions cancelled, while in many the qualifying roundshave been scrapped. The triple-jumper Jonathan Edwards, for example, will go straight to Sunday's final with the 12 other entrants.

Numerous other disciplines – including the heptathlon, the men's 3,000m steeplechase and the 50km walk – have fewer than 10 entrants. The badminton women's singles round of 64 will start with 47 players. Both singles squash draws are also below capacity.

The Games organisers had claimed that this year's event would be contested by the greatest-ever number of athletes, advertising 5,000-plus, but last night they conceded that entries totalled 3,864. Withdrawals are continuing to mount by the day, with Mauritius adding to the tally yesterday because their women's table tennis team was a player short and had to scratch. A significant number of the other 71 competing "countries" – including Jersey, Guernsey and the Isle of Man as separate entities – have sent less than a dozen participants each.

There have also been expulsions due to ineligibility. The most ludicrous case to date came on Wednesday night, when Zaf Shah, a 28-year-old runner from Bradford, was told that he would not eligible to run in today's 10,000m. He had trained for three years, planning to represent Pakistan, his father's birthplace and the country where he lived as a child.

His intention to showcase something positive about Bradford had even been used in Games literature by the organisers' marketing team. His photo had also appeared on the official website. On Wednesday he was expelled because he had not lived in Pakistan for a year before the Games. "I feel I have been let down by the organisers," he said. "What they have done is a disgrace. One minute they are with me, the next they are against me."

Other voices of discontent yesterday came from the boxing venue for the preliminary rounds, Wythenshawe Forum. Ironically, given that boxing is one of the few sports with a big turnout of athletes, it is being staged in the smallest arena with just 538 public seats available per day. There was further uproar yesterday when the scheduling was changed, meaning England hopes such as David Haye, Courtney Fry and David Dolan will fight today, not tomorrow as anticipated. Their family and friends had already bought tickets for tomorrow.

Other boxers have seen their families enlist as volunteers at the arena as the only means of seeing their boys fight. Volunteers easily outnumber athletes by about three to one overall.