SPORTS competition is, at anything other than the most casual level, often an intensely frustrating business. Maintaining fitness and form can be testing, and all too often injury means that athletes are denied the opportunity to perform to the best of their ability on major occasions.

Many sportsmen and women taste the disappointment of training hard and looking forward to a podium place only to have their hopes dashed by a last-minute accident or illness. Rather fewer see the chance of top-level competition threatening to slip away because the facilities for running an event are so poor that it cannot go ahead.

This, however, is the limbo that members of the Island’s Commonwealth Games team now find themselves in because of the widely publicised chaos in Delhi, the city where the 2010 Commonwealth event is due to begin in only ten days’ time.

As matters stand, the Jersey team is still expected to participate, though there have, of necessity, been eleventh-hour changes to travel arrangements. It is also true to say that severe doubts remain about the suitability – or even the safety – of the Delhi athletes’ village and sports facilities.

In common with team managers from other parts of the world, our Commonwealth Games officials have faced and are still facing a considerable dilemma. The responsibility for deciding whether conditions are acceptable for the Island contingent ultimately rests on their shoulders.

Quite obviously, sportsmen and women will still be intensely eager to test their mettle in what remains one of the world’s most prestigious sporting events. Their managers, support staff and supporters will be equally eager to see them compete. It is, however, also obvious that neither they nor anyone else in this Island can influence the regrettable situation half a world away in India.

With this in mind, the prudently cautious approach to a grave but unforeseen problem that has so far been adopted by officials here has been entirely appropriate – though it is difficult to imagine that any other course could have been followed.

We must now trust that the Indian authorities can finally get their act into gear and that the uncertainty and apprehension of recent days will not adversely affect our athletes’ performances. We must also wish the whole Jersey team the very best of luck if, as we hope, they are indeed able to set off to compete early next week.