INTERVIEW - Sport must leave comfort zone to inspire - Coe

Chairman of the 2012 Olympic Organising Committee, Sebastian Coe, speaks at a conference in central England October 6, 2010.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Taking major sporting events to new countries will present challenges but is essential to inspire youngsters to take up sport, London Olympic chief Sebastian Coe said at the Commonwealth Games on Tuesday.

(For Slideshow: Commonwealth Games Highlights, click here)

The Delhi Games, the first large multi-sport Games held in India since the 1982 Asian Games, have been beset with infrastructural and organisational problems before and during the 12-day event.

As the man in charge of delivering the 2012 London Olympics, twice Olympic champion Coe knows all about the complexities of putting together a large sporting event.

"People shouldn't underestimate how difficult it is to organise at this level and I think they've done a pretty good job," he told Reuters in an interview.

"If we think it is worth building a global capacity in sport, and we think that that global capacity will encourage young people to get involved in sport and healthy lifestyles, then occasionally you have to take those sports out of their comfort zones," he added.

"That's clearly not going to be without its challenges but I think that is worth doing."

Coe, whose grandfather was Indian and who still has relatives in the city, said he had received largely positive feedback about the Games from athletes in Delhi.

"I take my lead from the athletes. And the athletes are normally pretty brutally honest," he said.

"They liked the village, they liked the food, they thought the venues were good, they liked the proximity of the village to the training venues.

"A couple of them thought the security was a bit tough and they couldn't just wander out of the village."

The 54-year-old said judging levels of security was impossible to do without having all the information about local conditions and it was always a difficult balance to strike.

"The level of security here would be have been based on intelligence," he said.

"In London, you want to create a safe, secure environment for your competitors, your spectators and your workforce. But you also want people not to feel that they're in a city that's locked down."

MEDAL HAUL

One silver lining for India in Delhi has been the country's best ever Commonwealth Games medal haul and Coe said he was hoping for similar British success in London.

"It's very important," he said. "You want home success and you want it early, that's what builds the momentum. Home success builds the atmosphere so that athletes from far and wide feel they are competing in a buzzy atmosphere."

India's most important job was to build on the legacy of the event among the youth of the world's second most populous nation, he said.

"It's not just about choreographing great sports events, it's what gets left behind," he said.

"Indian sport is performing at a much higher level than before but the real challenge in the next couple of years is to convert those medals into kids taking up those sports."

(Editing by Sonia Oxley; To query or comment on this story email sportsfeedback@thomsonreuters.com)