Bid leaders leave Australia after trying to win votes

BRISBANE, Apr 3 (Reuters): The bid leaders of the five cities hoping to stage the 2012 Olympics left Australia today after two days of lobbying to win a handful of votes that could swing the decision their way.

With the final vote now less than 100 days away, the delegates from London, Madrid, Moscow, New York and Paris were leaving nothing to chance as they presented their bid proposals to the Oceania National Olympic Committee.

There are just five voting members in Oceania but those five votes could mean the difference between winning and losing in one of the tightest races in Olympic history.

Paris are favourites to win the Games after twice missing out in the past two decades but bid chief executive Philippe Baudillon said there was no place for complacency.

"We really want the Games," Baudillon pleaded.

"This is our third time trying.

"We are making our own race and we are not going to change that in the last 100 days." London is looming as the main threat to Paris and bid chairman Sebastian Coe, who rushed to Brisbane for the meeting after attending the funeral of his mother in England, said they were closing in fast.

"We came to this bidding process considerably later than some other cities and we had to make sure we had that public support and we have that now," he said.

"The international people whose judgment I value in this process tell us that we are taken seriously and that there is a momentum." New York's bidding team also said they were timing their run to perfection after lagging behind in the early stages.

They delivered a slick presentation that included the promise of free tickets for families of athletes and the appointment of a regional officer to assist promising Oceania athletes.

"Too often bid cities make promises and then once they win they change and they may not deliver on those promises," New York deputy mayor Dan Doctoroff said.

"That's not the approach that we're taking.

If we occasionally have to go through a difficult public relations issue or political battle we're prepared to do that because it is absolutely critical of us that we deliver on every promise we make." Juan Antonio Samaranch Jr, the son of the former International Olympic Committee (IOC) president, emphasised the Spanish capital's environmental features and plans to build the athletes' village close enough to the venues so the competitors could walk to the events.

Samaranch also had to defend his country's damaged reputation over the ugly racism row that has engulfed Spanish soccer.

"Racism is a terrible thing that happens in many countries," Samaranch said.

"But what happened in Spain has helped us, as a country and a community, focus on the problem and I can say that Spain is one of the most dedicated countries in the world to fighting racism." Moscow stressed their record of hosting major events, including the boycott-hit 1980 Olympics, and the fundamental changes in their country.

"The Olympics that took place in 1980 were of the highest level even if not everyone was there...we are not ashamed of them," Moscow deputy mayor Valery Shantsev said through an interpreter.

"But we had a very different country then.

It was the Soviet Union then, now it is the new Russia and our goal is to show the world the new Russia." IOC members will select the 2012 hosts at a meeting in Singapore on July 6.