Massive security for games opening

The City of Manchester Stadium has been built for the games at a cost of £110 million

MANCHESTER, England (CNN) -- A massive security operation is being mounted for the 17th Commonwealth Games in Manchester, northwestern England.

The showpiece games of athletes from the Commonwealth of mostly ex-British colonies are being opened by Queen Elizabeth II on Thursday with British PM Tony Blair and Prince Edward among the VIP guests.

One thousand police will be on duty each day as well as specialist teams to protect VIPs, spectators and the 5,000 athletes in the city for the four-yearly event dubbed "The Friendly Games."

Manchester, England's third biggest city after London and Birmingham, has uneasy memories of Irish republican terrorist attacks -- the most recent in 1996 when an IRA bomb devastated the city centre and injured 200 people.

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But the city has undergone a £1 billion ($1.6bn) regeneration programme since and hopes the holding of the games -- won after losing out to Atlanta and Sydney in bids to hold the Olympics -- will breathe further new life into the area.

The signs are the games will be a huge success, with 500,000 visitors to the city expected over 10 days and events already 80 per cent sold out, bringing ticket revenues of £30 million ($47m).

It will be the biggest sporting spectacle in Britain apart from football since the 1948 London Olympics and more than 500 million TV viewers across the world are expected to watch the games' opening.

Ten thousand volunteers and £30 million ($47m) TV and sponsorship money have underpinned a gigantic logistical operation.

The main venue is a stunning new £110 million ($172m) 38,000-seater City of Manchester stadium which will, after the games, be handed over to English soccer club Manchester City, who join their more famous rivals Manchester United in the English Premiership next month.

United star Ryan Giggs and City's Stuart Pearce were the final runners in the Queen's Jubilee Baton Relay, the games "interactive element," on Wednesday.

Runners have carried the Jubilee Baton through 23 Commonwealth countries after starting from Buckingham Palace on Commonwealth Day -- March 11. The baton reached Manchester after a 50-day tour of the UK, with 5,000 people helping to carry it.

At Thursday's opening ceremony a six-year-old terminally ill girl, Kirsty Howard, is to take centre stage at the opening ceremony, handing the baton back to the queen.

Kirsty, who was born with her heart back-to-front, was the England mascot for the crunch World Cup qualifier against Greece at Old Trafford last year, walking out on to the pitch hand-in-hand with England soccer captain David Beckham and there are reports he will appear with her.

Highlights of the games are expected to be the swimming and the athletics, with big name stars taking part including Australia's Ian Thorpe (swimming) and Cathy Freeman (relay), England's Jonathan Edwards (triple jump), Namibia's Frankie Fredericks (100m, 200m and relay) and Mozambique's Maria Mutola (800 and 1500m).

The Manchester Aquatics Centre will host the games' swimming events

Olympic 400 metres gold medallist Freeman is competing -- though only in one event -- despite her husband suffering from throat cancer.

Swimming sensation "The Thorpedo" Thorpe is going for no less then seven gold medals.

The event began in Hamilton, Canada in 1930, when Canadian journalist Bobby Robinson brought together 400 competitors to contest six sports -- athletics, bowls, boxing, rowing, swimming and wrestling.

The games have a tradition of providing a springboard for future sporting immortals including boxing world heavyweight champion Lennox Lewis.

Among the famous moments from past games have been "The Miracle Mile" in Vancouver in 1954 when England's Roger Bannister just beat Australia's John Landy, both men running four-minute miles.

At the same games English marathon runner Jim Peters -- three miles ahead of the field -- collapsed 12 times within sight of the finishing line before finally falling into the arms of the English team masseur 200 yards short of the line. It turned out he had actually run the marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards but the course had been mis-measured. He never raced again.

There are 54 nations in the Commonwealth but 72 countries are eligible to bring teams because of multiple counting -- the United Kingdom is, for the games' purposes, England, Wales Scotland, Northern Ireland, Isle of Man, Jersey and Guernsey with teams competing from each.

There are 17 sports, 14 individual and three team sports: aquatics, cycling, table tennis, athletics, gymnastics, triathlon, badminton judo, weightlifting, lawn bowls, shooting, wrestling, boxing and squash. The three team sports are field hockey, netball and rugby sevens.

For the first time at such an event 200 elite disabled athletes with a disability will compete in five sports during the same 10-day period as able-bodied athletes.

International politics has not been allowed to overshadow the games. Athletes from Zimbabwe are taking part despite the suspension of their country from the Commonwealth. Organisers ruled that Zimbabwe, although suspended, remained a Commonwealth country.

Not that the games are without controversy. On Wednesday Scotland's weightlifting manager Jim Ferguson stepped down because of an investigation into allegations that he helped competitors buy performance-enhancing drugs.

English pole vaulter Janine Whitlock' was ruled out when she was suspended from competition by UK Athletics while a disciplinary committee investigated a positive drugs test.

At a more local level there has been carping about the effect on local services after Manchester City Council agreed to underwrite the games. The council leader issued a statement denying any plans to raise local taxes.

There was a row about the original "Mad Ferret" mascot -- said to be a play on the "mad fer it" attitude of local band Oasis but seen as patronising northern Englanders. (Hunting rabbits with this type of domestic polecat is seen in the UK as an old-fashioned northern working class pursuit).

But whatever its image -- mention Manchester to most Britons and they will first point to the rainfall and the terrace houses and accents of the British TV soap, "Coronation Street" -- the organisers say the games will create 5,000 jobs and a £22 million ($34m) tourism boom.

Manchester enthusiasts point to the area's existing cultural attractions -- such as the fact that Greater Manchester is already the regional theatre capital of Britain, with 13 auditoriums including The Royal Exchange, the Palace Theatre, The Opera House, The Lowry and Manchester Library Theatre.

The Lowry is the area's newest attraction. The impressive new complex on Salford Quays, which opened two years ago, contains two theatres, an interactive gallery and the world's largest collection of paintings by the local-born artist after whom it is named, L.S. Lowry, famous for his cotton mill and "matchstick men" paintings.

The Manchester men also say it proves they can host a big sporting event -- unlike big brother London, they say, where plans to host the 2005 World athletics championships were scrapped and the future of a national stadium at Wembley is still embarrassingly in doubt.