By Duncan Mackay

January 8 - Nanjing in China has emerged as the front-runner to host the 2014 Summer Youth Olympic Games ahead of rivals Guadalajara and Poznan after a report published today claimed that their bid represented the least risk to the International Olympic Committee (IOC).


The IOC Evaluation Commission, headed by former world 200 metres champion Frankie Fredericks, claimed in its report that staging the event in the China's ninth largest city "presents minimal risk to the IOC" while the other two candidates "presents a number of risks to the IOC".

The historic city of Nanjing, located in the lower Yangtze River and which was the capital of China before the communist revolution in 1949, has a population of 7.5 million and is proposing a budget of $117.4 million (£73.09 million), the biggest of all the candidates and of which 72 per cent is guaranteed by Government subsidies.

It also already has 21 of the 25 venues needed to host the event, with all of them located within 30 minutes of the proposed Olympic Village.

The IOC Commission, which also included world pole vault record holder Sergey Bubka, said: "[Nanjing] proposes a reasonably compact concept backed up by generally solid guarantees.

"Nanjing makes good use of existing venues and has some experience in hosting international and multi-sport events.

"Whilst there may be a risk of over-sizing compared with the minimum requirements and YOG (Youth Olympic Games) philosophy set out by the IOC in terms of venues and service levels, the bid committee has agreed to work closely with the IOC, should the Games be awarded to Nanjing and a number of proposals have already been made in this regard."

Guadalajara, the Mexican city due to host the 2011 Pan-American Games, is praised for using the preparations for that event to present a "reasonably compact project" but the IOC have raised concerns about a number of aspects, including the lack of guarantees if the $82.74 million (£51.51 million) budget falls short .

The IOC claims that this "represents an important financial risk".

Preparations for 2011 have also been hit by delays and financial problems and the IOC said that "in light of the latest information available regarding the status of progress of preparations for the Pan American Games, the Commission reserves judgement on the benefit of the experience gained from the organisation of these Games".

Poznan, the Polish city which has recently hosted a number of major events, including the World Track Cycling Championships and the World Rowing Championships, has the lowest budget of the candidates and the IOC are worried that the $62.74 million (£39.06 million) will not be enough to cover it.

The "budget appears low in a number of key areas and may not be sufficient to cover the proposed levels of service described in the candidature file", the IOC noted, although the City of Poznan has promised to underwrite any shortfall.

The Evaluation Commission  are also concerned over who will finance the cost of the proposed Olympic Village, which is due to be at the city's university and said that this "solution would need to be closely monitored to ensure compliance with IOC requirements".

The full IOC membership is choose the host city at its Session in Vancouver next month.

Each of the bidding cities also must overcome geographical obstacles if their bids are to be successful.

Nanjing faces the handicap that Singapore has already been chosen to stage the inaugural Summer Youth Olympics later this year and the IOC may decide that it would be inappropriate to take the event twice to Asia in succession, especially as they are still trying to establish it.

Guadalajara, meanwhile, faces the barrier that Rio de Janeiro is already due to stage the 2016 Olympics while Poznan must convince IOC members to take another major event to Eastern Europe in the same year that Sochi will host the 2014 Winter Olympics.

To read the full report click here.

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