Yes indeedy, Manchester played host to the prestigious 2002 Commonwealth Games. Having narrowly failed to secure the 2000 Olympics ( Sydney beat us on the weather stats ), we had another go and got the Commonwealth job. It then struck the committee that a running track may come in useful and so we had to rush through a stadium, shown below in May 2001. Fortunately, we already had a velodrome ( next picture ) and the River Irwell for swimming.
