OLYMPICS/Shortlist for 2002 Games: The nine cities hoping to stage the 2012 Olympic Games are facing a cull as Olympic chiefs meet to draw up a shortlist of candidates.
The nine applicants - Havana, Istanbul, Leipzig, London, Madrid, Moscow, New York City, Paris and Rio de Janeiro - will learn their fate today. Sources close to the International Olympic Committee believe the field may be cut to as few as five.
However, the heavyweight nature of the applicants could see seven cities go through to the next stage. The IOC will announce the winner in July next year.
While IOC president Jacques Rogge said last year that he could envisage all nine cities going through to a final round, sources now say some cities will definitely be cut.
Four years ago 10 cities were slashed to five at this stage in the race to stage the 2008 Games. Along with Beijing - which eventually won the race to host the Games - Osaka, Toronto, Paris and Istanbul were invited to submit formal bids. Havana was axed along with Bangkok, Cairo, Kuala Lumpur and Seville.
Cuban officials say this time that Havana should be awarded the Games because it is the world's top medal winner per capita.
However, the city faces rejection once again for weak infrastructure and inadequate accommodation, the same reasons it was turned down four years ago.
The nine contenders for the 2012 Olympics launched their bids in January with the emphasis on compact and accessible venues. Favourites Paris and London promoted the attractions of their landmarks, Madrid promised an environmentally friendly Games while New York dubbed itself the "world city".
Paris organisers say they will stage beach volleyball at the foot of the Eiffel tower. London say they will hold beach volleyball in Horse Guards Parade.
Meanwhile, the Olympic future of softball, modern pentathlon and baseball is safe until 2012 according to the IOC.
The trio of sports had faced expulsion at the IOC session in 2002, but were given a reprieve when members resisted a proposal to drop them all together.
Following pleas by leaders of the three sports at that meeting in Mexico City, IOC members voted to postpone any cuts of entire sports until after the 2004 Summer Olympics. The IOC has not thrown a sport out of the Games since 1936.
"After each Games we will review the sports," Rogge said. "We have frozen the programme at 28 sports and at 10,500 athletes. If any sport wants to come in, one will have to go. But no sport will be excluded before 2012."
Rogge also yesterday announced all Olympic sports will have signed the World Anti-Doping Agency agreement by the start of the Athens Games on August 13th. The two sports yet to sign, cycling and soccer, will sign "imminently", Rogge said.
IOC sources say FIFA still has difficulty accepting the mandatory two-year ban required by WADA for a doping offence and that they will not accept WADA's right to appeal against any FIFA ban imposed.
But Rogge said yesterday some form of agreement would be reached. "They are going to sign. If they are going to sign, that means that they must have an agreement," he said.
