After a fraught build-up that threatened to see the event called off, the Commonwealth Games finally gets under way in Delhi tomorrow. A number of North-East competitors have travelled to India, and The Northern Echo profiles three of the region’s leading medal hopes.

MORE than two years have passed since Bradley Saunders returned home from the Olympic Games emptyhanded.

In the immediate aftermath of his defeat to Alexis Vastine, of France, his knee-jerk comments were, he still claims, taken out of context by sections of the national media. It had looked, thousands of miles from his Sedgefield home, that the weight of him being regarded as Great Britain’s best medal prospect had caught up with him.

Time, however, has proven to be a great healer for Saunders. With the words “to know I’ve not won a medal has taken a big weight off my shoulders, I want to live a local boy’s life now” firmly behind him, the light welterweight is eyeing up a medal once more.

It has been a difficult period for Saunders, but he feels he is nearing his best again. It might not be the Olympic gold he is driving for, but the Commonwealth Games offers him an opportunity to showcase his talent once more.

“I am going to my first Commonwealth Games. I am not travelling all the way over to India just to take in the experience, I want to win,”

said Saunders. “What happened at the Olympics was two years ago. I want to forget about that now. This is about this year and what I can do.”

Saunders has been out in Thailand with the rest of the England boxing team for almost two weeks, acclimatising to the time and temperature difference.

Even now he still finds himself waking up in the middle of the night, thinking it should be morning, but he is satisfied he will be in the right shape and frame of mind when it comes to his first contest.

Much has been made of the conditions that the competitors will face in Delhi in the next fortnight, and Saunders is aware of how Indian boxer Akhil Kumar’s bed collapsed last weekend, which was big news in the host country.

“I’m sure everything will be fine,” said Saunders. “My biggest problem has been my sleep, I just haven’t been able to get any. I have been rooming with Simon Vallily, who is from Middlesbrough, and we have been talking all night because we couldn’t get to sleep.”

Since travelling to Thailand 12 days ago, Saunders has been sticking to a strict schedule, which includes plenty of jogging, gym work and sparring in one of the four rings set up in his hotel.

He is using the Commonwealth Games as an opportunity to make up for the frustration he felt in Beijing. If he is successful, then he will continue to press ahead in the hope of succeeding in 2012.

“I’m not sure what I will be doing after these Games,” said Saunders. “The Olympics in London would be brilliant. I’m not even thinking too far ahead, I’m just looking at how this goes first. I want to achieve my targets and goals in India and then after that I can look at what might lie ahead.”

JESSICA Dickons admits the hardest part of the Commonwealth Games was simply qualifying – but now she’s there she is ready to take her chance with both hands.

The Stockton-born 20-yearold will take to the water in Delhi as part of an English team led by double Olympic champion Rebecca Adlington after winning 200m butterfly gold at August’s ASA National Championships in Sunderland.

But despite topping the podium in her native North- East, the Stockton Amateur Swimming Club ace was made to sweat on selection with her time of 2:10.59mins still 0.72secs off the qualifying standard.

However, Dickons received the call-up and has since been at a British Swimming holding camp in Doha to prepare and is determined to make the most of her first multi-games experience.

“I am really looking forward to the Commonwealth Games and coming to Doha has helped cut down the jet lag and it is closer to Delhi,” said Dickons, who will compete on the final day of the swimming programme in seven days.

“I have never done a major Games before, I have done the World Championships and Europeans but never an Olympics or Commonwealth Games, so I am looking forward to it and seeing what it is going to be like in a village.

“Even though there has been a lot of negative press about the Games, I am still excited about it.

“I have just been concentrating on my training and haven’t thought about it too much.

“Training has been going really well and I am hoping to swim a little bit faster than I did at Sunderland and just enjoy the whole experience.

“I haven’t really put any targets on the Commonwealth Games – I just want to enjoy myself.

“I only just made the team to be honest so I am just happy to be here and I am just really looking forward to it.”

Dickons burst on to the scene in 2006 when winning 200m butterfly gold at the European Junior Championships, only to see her progress stall when a move to Paris didn’t work out.

But she has since found a new home in Bath and is hoping to make the most of her new base as she looks to get her London 2012 Olympic journey back on track.

“I have had a pretty rough two years what with going to Paris and coming back.

“I changed clubs and have been trying to find somewhere where I am really happy,” she added.

“I struggled quite a lot and my swimming performances have gone down. But I feel really happy with where I am now in Bath.

“I have been there the past year and I have worked a lot with my coaches,.

“I have also worked a lot with my psychologist to try and get me in a happy place not just swimming but also within myself and I feel like now I am starting to get back on track.

“I have been a lot happier over the past six months and my swimming is starting to get better and I just need to be happy to swim well and work towards my ultimate goal, which is the London Olympics.”

VICKI BARR insists the Commonwealth Games will be a watershed moment in her athletics career that enables her to finally ditch her tag as a relay specialist.

While Chester-le-Street-born Barr has become a regular fixture in the GB 4x400m ranks – being part of the squad at the Beijing Olympics and the world and European championships – Delhi will be her first individual major championship experience.

“I am really excited ahead of the Games,” said Barr, who will contest the first round of the 400m on Wednesday afternoon.

“This is my first time doing an individual at a major champs because usually I’m just part of the relay team, so for me this is a massive opportunity to go out there and prove to myself and everybody else what I can do.

“I want to make the final out there obviously, because once you make the final anything can happen.

“An underdog might come through and take it or the top person may not run well.

“I think I need a major championship like this to make a big breakthrough so I’m really looking forward to it.

“The Commonwealths are late in the year, but I was aiming all year for the Europeans and the Commonwealth Games, so I was prepared for it.”

Barr put the final touches to her Delhi preparations earlier this month by claiming victory at the Arena Games in Hilversum, Holland, in a time of 53.18secs.

While some athletes have expressed concerns over the expected heat and humidity of the sub-continent event, Barr believes her jet-setting athletics career will ensure she settles straight into life in Delhi.

“I haven’t altered my training at all to deal with the climate in Delhi,” added Barr.

“I have had competitions and training in South Africa, San Diego and Barcelona, where it was also very hot, so I kind of know what to expect.

“I was in Doha for the World Indoors earlier this year too so I know what to expect.

“We’ve had lots of medical advice too, so I have no worries about acclimatising or anything like that.”

North-East contingent

ARCHERY
Alan Wills (Peterlee, recurve)
ATHLETICS
Vicki Barr (Chester-le-Street, 400m and 4x400m relay)
Johanna Jackson (New Marske, 20km walk)
Chris Tomlinson (Middlesbrough, long jump)
BOXING
Simon Vallily (Middlesbrough, heavyweight)
Bradley Saunders (Sedgefield, light welterweight)
CYCLING
David Daniell (Middlesbrough, time trial)
SQUASH
Jenny Duncalf (Harrogate, singles and doubles)
SWIMMING
Jessica Dickons (Stockton, 200m butterfly)
Joanne Jackson (Richmond, 200m freestyle, 400m freestyle)
Jemma Lowe (Hartlepool, competes for Wales, 100m butterfly, 200m butterfly)
Aimee Wilmott (Middlesbrough, 200m IM, 400m IM, 800m freestyle)
TABLE TENNIS
Paul Drinkhall (Loftus, singles, doubles, mixed doubles and team)
Karina Lefevre (Thornaby, singles, doubles, mixed doubles and team)
Danny Reed (Hutton Rudby, singles, doubles, mixed doubles and team)
TENNIS
Sarah Borwell (Middlesbrough, doubles)