Baku committee "delighted" with Games attendance

The Baku European Games Operations Committee has spoken of its 'delight' regarding the popularity of the Games so far.

Chief operating officer Simon Clegg told reporters that organisers had been pleased with attendance levels at events and that the inaugural Games has been going according to plan.

"I was delighted that we had a total of more than 19,000 people go through the turnstiles and have their tickets scanned at track and field athletics yesterday," said Clegg. "In total we had 36,416 spectators across 14 sessions at seven different venues. And yesterday we averaged 81% attendance across all the venues.

"We had one athlete (Rexhildo Zeneli) who was sent home before the competition as the result of a positive drugs test. That's in the public domain. But outside of that, competition has continued as expected.

"I am aware of an incident that took place outside the field of play, but that had no impact on athletes being disqualified from the event. This was an issue between two officials. It was a very minor issue. It was dealt with at the venue immediately, but it had no impact on the athletes."

Albanian boxer Zeneli tested positive for a banned substance in an out-of-competition test on June 13.