The quality of the athletes� village and transport in and around the Olympic Games in Beijing has set a new standard for improving competitors� experience at major sporting events.

The quality of the athletes' village and transport in and around the Olympic Games in Beijing has set a new standard for improving competitors' experience at major sporting events, according to the man in charge of delivering the 2014 Commonwealth Games in Glasgow.

John Scott, chief executive of the 2014 organising company, said that lessons will be learned from the success of the Games in China, particularly in the attention to detail in the organisation of the event.

"What I have been most impressed with is the complete lack of any criticism of the operational side of the games," he said. "At Athens there were problems transporting the press. None of that has come out of the Beijing Games. It looks like the organisational detail has been incredibly strong.

"In terms of a benchmark, we are not going to benchmark their opening ceremony. But there are other things like transport, the general management of athletes and the village experience. One of the promises of our bid was the quality of the athletes' village. We want to ensure the experience of athletes puts them in the best position to perform to the best of their ability. We will be looking at that, seeing what kind of expectations there are now.

"We will also be looking carefully at the transport management plans because there are issues when there are so many people to move around venues."

Mr Scott, who only began in his new position the week before the Olympics, did not travel to Beijing for the Games. However, he will visit the city for next month's Paralympics and said that would help in planning the details for Glasgow to host the 2014 Commonwealth Games.

"The Chinese have made a commitment to replicate the same level of service to the Paralympics as they did to the Olympics," he said. "We will have a chance to see them repeat the exercise. We have made a commitment that we will provide the best-ever Games. That will be a Games that is fit for purpose. We are at the beginning of the journey. We went through a bid process. We now have to translate that into a delivery plan."