Baku out of fight for hosting 2016 Olympic games

Chicago (USA), Tokyo (Japan), Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) and Madrid (Spain) have been shortlisted as candidate cities from a list of 7 applicant cities.

The applicant cities that could not make it to the shortlist are Prague (Czech Republic), Baku (Azerbaijan) and Doha (Qatar).

This was announced Wednesday 4 June 2008 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).

Jacques Rogge, President IOC said "All the bids were of a very high standard," he continued "It is a tribute to the health of the Olympic Movement that the field was so strong. I congratulate the Candidate Cities and I hope that those cities which were unsuccessful this time have benefited from the process."

Now, the 4 candidate cities have to submit their candidature files to IOC by 12 February 2009 which will then be analyzed by the IOC Evaluation Commission.

The final decision is expected to be made by the full IOC membership on 2 October 2009 during the 121st IOC Session in Copenhagen.

/Mera Bilaspur/