Liberal Subsidy For Junior Athletes

Press, Volume XCIII, Issue 27914, 10 March 1956, Page 3

Liberal Subsidy For Junior Athletes

Members of the Canterbury junior i and women’s team to compete for naI tional athletic titles at Hamilton on I March 2 and 3 have been very liberally treated by comparison with many I senior teams of the past. The Canter- ; bury Centre has approved a travelling 1 subsidy of £4 5s for each member. The team will fly up and return by ■ train and ship at an estimated cost of £ll 5s each. i Two years ago. when the senior ! team competed at Hamilton, its mem- | bers travelled by bus. provided their own hotel accommodation—the juniors • and women are billeted —at a cost of about £l5. and were subsidised £1 10s. Last year a very small team of less than a dozen athletes was given a grant of about £5 each. Again they provided their own accommodation. With 24 athletes picked to represent the province at Hamilton, the cost of financing the team will be something in excess of £lOO. which the centre can ill afford at present. The tour by the American athletes resulted in a loss of nearly £4OO to the New Zealand Association. Canterbury’s share of this will be about £lOO. Athletics is one of the least rewarding of sports when it comes to representing one's province. As one prominent Canterbury senior has remarked, it is an expensive business to be a good athlete. While it is encouraging to see improved assistance being given to travelling teams, it is a pity that greater consideration has not been given to senior athletes. It is to be hoped that seniors will merit more generous treatment in the future, particularly as many of them have been stalwarts of athletics for many years.