Tom Daley
touched down in Delhi yesterday, insisting in his welcome press
conference that he had no worries about the stomach sickness that has
affected so many athletes at the Commonwealth Games. "Around 8% of
England's entire team of 541 competitors have suffered from some form of
gastro problem," confirmed the chef de mission Craig Hunter, "most of
them lasted only 24 hours."

One English athlete, who Hunter refused to name, was taken to hospital for further tests, but is now said to be recovering well.

"Obviously I have read all the stories in the newspapers," said Daley, "but once
we got here everything was great. My impression is that everything is
clean, the food is great and the security is tight, I think it has been
great so far." Daley has only been in the Games Village 24 hours.
Rebecca Adlington was similarly optimistic when she was settling into
her accommodation, but last night she tweeted "Now Delhi belly please go
away!" and "Hoping I feel better tomorrow though, not flash at the
min!"

Adlington's team-mate Fran Halsall was so badly affected
that she has been on a bread and water diet while trying to compete in
four different events. Adlington will be hoping that her performance in
the 800m freestyle today is not ruined by her illness, which is what
happened to Halsall in the 100m freestyle.

"In the last 24-48
hours there have been more swimmers coming down with it," confirmed
Hunter. The Australian team have been particularly badly affected,
suffering three cases of full gastroenteritis. Two of the Australian
team, Andrew Lauterstein and Hayden Stoeckel have had to withdraw from
the competition altogether because of severe vomiting and diarrhoea.
Serious concerns were raised that it was the water in the either the
main or the practice pool that was the cause of the illness.

Today both the English and Australian team wrote to the Games' organising
committee requesting clarification over the quality of the water
quality. Hunter said that tests had been conducted this morning and
assurances given. Things only got worse at the Aquatic complex when the
athletes' toilets blocked up and overflowed.

The English hockey team have also been suffering. Hunter suggested that this was because
"they are constantly taking their gumshield and it could be something
airborne that gets onto their hand". He denied that it was the food in
the athletes' village that was to blame, though several of the
Australians said that they had only got sick after eating spaghetti
bolognese in the village canteen. Asked what the source of the illness
was, Hunter only said that "analysis was ongoing".

"I just think everyone has to be careful with their hand gels making sure everything
is clean and that they wash their hands a lot," said Daley, "that's just
a precaution you have to take in any foreign country."

Hunter, and the Games organisers, will be hoping that Daley is right, because if
the problem is eventually traced to either the water in the pool or the
food in the village, the Games will have a far more serious problem
than anything a little extra soap can fix.