London:
After postponing their original travel plans, the first batch of Scottish athletes for the Commonwealth Games will board the flight to Delhi on Saturday.
The first contingent will comprise archery, lawn bowls, shooting, tennis and weightlifting teams.
"I am delighted that the Board has been able to confirm our intention to fly to the Games on Saturday as hoped," said Michael Cavanagh, the chairman of Commonwealth Games Scotland.
They were due to fly out on Thursday but their departure was postponed. The teams for rugby 7s, boxing and wrestling would board the flights to India on September 28.
Cavanagh said the team would face its share of challenges in Delhi, which has been criticised for shoddy preparations.
"There will undoubtedly be challenges ahead in Delhi, but we are confident that these can be effectively managed by our Team management, who have done a fantastic job over the last week to ensure we could get to this position and we thank them for their unstinting efforts," he said in a statement.
"I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our athletes who have remained calm throughout these extremely difficult few days and continued to pledge their commitment to the team," he added.
The team's chef de mission in Delhi Jon Doig said the athletes would be taken care of during their stay in the Indian capital for the October 3 to 14 event.
"We are really looking forward to welcoming the athletes to Delhi and are working hard to finalise preparations. We are really grateful to the people of Scotland for the tremendous support they have shown us and we hope they can now look forward to watching our athletes compete at the Games," he said.
The first batch of English athletes and officials reached the host city on Friday morning.