Top Gymnastics trio will miss Delhi trip
British Gymnastics have opted to pull their top names out of next year's Commonwealth Games.
The move means stars such as Beth Tweddle, Louis Smith and Daniel Keatings will be absent when the individual home nations compete in Delhi.
The artistic gymnastics competition at the event takes place from from October 4-8 and the rhythmic discipline from October 12-14, the latter finishing just three days before the start of the 2010 gymnastics World Championships.
Eddie van Hoof, British Gymnastics' performance director, told the Daily Mail: "It's not just the travel and jet lag but the potential for tummy bugs and diarrhoea that exists in making the trip.
"We just cannot afford to take the risk when so much is at stake."
The gymnasts' withdrawal follows those of heptathlete Jessica Ennis and marathon runner Paula Radcliffe, while cycling ace Mark Cavendish also faces a dilemma.
The road race, which the Manxman would be likely to enter, takes place just seven days after the equivalent World Championship event in Melbourne on September 29.
Jamaican sprint star Usain Bolt's participation is also in doubt, but three-time medallist Dame Kelly Holmes insists the competition remains an important part of the international calendar.
Holmes, now president of the Commonwealth Games Council for England, told that organisation's official website: "We need to recognise that the Games is a much-needed platform and experience for those performers who will progress on to the bigger stage of the Olympics."
