Support grows for British Olympic bid

Politicians of various hues celebrated the start of the new bandwagon jumping season yesterday by lauding the Commonwealth Games and increasing speculation that there will be a British bid for the 2012 Olympics.

This came as Ian Thorpe, the superstar of the Games, said he would endorse any British bid, and as the council in Manchester begged that its city not be left out of consideration for 2012.

At the Games stadium, where Manchester 2002's chief executive, Frances Done, announced that commercial income had exceeded all targets, contractors moved in to start ripping up the athletics track and turning the venue into a new home for Manchester City.

Tony Blair said the North-West's sporting festival, which ended late Sunday with a spectacular closing ceremony, had been "probably the best ever" Commonwealth Games. "The benefits will be felt for generations to come, including the lasting sporting legacy as well as significant regeneration," he added. A spokeswoman said the Prime Minister was "not rushing into any decision on a possible bid" for 2012.

John Greenway, the shadow sports minister, did not waste the chance to record a personal best response time. He said the Labour Government had damaged British sport through the Picketts Lock and Wembley fiascos and that it was John Major's Tory government who had laid the foundations for a successful Games. "A well-organised, viable British bid for the 2012 Olympics will naturally enjoy the support of the Conservative Party," he said.

The Government, in partnership with the British Olympic Association and the Greater London Authority, will announce, probably in November, whether they will bid for 2012. First they must consider a lengthy cost-benefit analysis. The BOA and the GLA have already made it clear any bid will be centred on east London. They will allow no room for manoeuvre on this, something that has upset some in Manchester.

"Our Games has demonstrated we can put in place the organisational capacity for a complex event such as this," Richard Leese, the leader of Manchester City Council, said. "I think it is wrong for the options to be closed off without cities other than London having an opportunity, if they wish, to demonstrate they have the capability to host the Games." Manchester bid for – and failed by a wide margin to win – both the 1996 and 2000 Olympics.

Done said that the Games organisers' commercial income target of £51m had been exceeded by an estimated five per cent – a Commonwealth Games record. Ticket sales were also likely to have been at around 85 per cent of capacity for all events, a figure approaching that achieved at the Sydney Olympics.

Thorpe, the star of both those Olympics and this summer's Games, said yesterday he would be happy to see Britain stage the 2012 Games. "Having seen how well Manchester has done with these Games, they could put in a successful Olympic bid here," he said. The boy could be a politician for sure.

Moving on to more participatory matters, the 19-year-old, who won six Manchester gold medals from seven events entered, said he has ruled out the possibility of matching Mark Spitz's record of winning seven gold medals at an Olympics.

Thorpe, who also won a record six golds at last year's World Championships in Japan, said he did not think it was possible for anyone to emulate Spitz's total from Munich in 1972. "I don't think it'll be done again," he said. "It's something I don't want to go out there and beat, be part of or extend myself towards because it's not me. I'm not doing something to have accolades or the recognition of doing something that someone else hasn't done. And nor do I think it's possible."

Thorpe has established himself as the best swimmer in the world and the best since Spitz by winning almost every time he takes to the pool. His solitary silver in Manchester came in the 100m backstroke, an event he had not done before. He has set 17 individual world records. * The double gold medallist Satheesha Rai has become the second Indian weightlifter to test positive for drugs at the Commonwealth Games. Rai, who won two golds and a bronze in the men's 77kg category, tested positive for an unidentified stimulant. India's 62kg lifter Krishnan Madasamy was stripped of three silver medals after testing positive for a metabolite of nandrolone.