Report: Chair of IOC evaluation team leaves Madrid

MADRID (AP) -The chair of the International Olympic Committee's team for evaluating 2016 Olympic Games bids has reportedly abandoned the tour of Madrid two days before the close of the five-day process.

Nawal el Moutawakel returned to Morocco, where she is sport minister, on Wednesday after receiving a call from King Mohammed VI, according to Spanish news agency Efe.

Calls to bid organizers by The Associated Press were not returned.

El Moutawakel reportedly handed over her duties to Wu Ching-Kuo, who is president of the International Amateur Boxing Association, to finish off the five-day evaluation process.

El Moutawakel, a former Olympic gold medallist, had to return because the Moroccan government was passing an important sport law.

Madrid is the last of the four candidate cities to be visited after Chicago, Tokyo and Rio de Janeiro.

El Moutawakel took part in Wednesday's tour of the proposed venues, considered one of the strongest points of the Spanish capital's candidature.

The 13-member team spent nearly 12 hours visiting the infrastructure, which is already 77 percent complete and within a 20-kilometer radius of the city center.

"I think they were impressed with what we had to show them,'' bid leader Mercedes Coghen said. "I think the visit really went well, it was spectacular and it was a good feeling all around.''

The only disappointment may have been the finale, when the delegation arrived at Real Madrid's Santiago Bernabeu Stadium, where former Madrid great Alfredo di Stefano was on hand to greet the IOC with interim president Vicente Boluda, but current player Raul Gonzalez failed to show up on the field.

The third day of the tour began with a visit to the proposed 65,000-capacity Olympic Stadium, where Atletico Madrid's contingent of South American players - Sergio Aguero, Diego Forlan and Maxi Rodriguez - did appear to greet the IOC.

Delegates were then bused through the Olympic Park, the proposed areas for the velodrome, hockey and aquatics center, and the Olympic pavilion.

Fencer Jose Luis Abajo, who won bronze at Beijing last summer, said the IOC seemed content with Paralympic facilities at the city's trade fairground, which will also be the site of the media village.

"They made two questions about the (International Broadcast Center),'' Abajo said. "One was to know if it was already built, (and) if it will be built for the Olympic Games. But they haven't made many questions because it was all explained.''

Spanish tennis player Fernando Verdasco then walked the IOC members through the "Magic Box'' tennis center, where French player Amelie Mauresmo was training for the upcoming Madrid Masters.

IOC members were treated to a handball tournament involving a local school at the Madrid Arena as the tour continued on to the Palacio de Deportes, where taekwondo and judo are slated.

It all wrapped at the Bernabeu, with cyclists leading the IOC bus down the Paseo de Castellana, a main thoroughfare in Madrid, to the stadium where a group of schoolchildren greeted their arrival.

The IOC will decide on the host city in a vote at Copenhagen on Oct. 2.