Need For Development Of All-Weather Tracks

Press, Volume C, Issue 29433, 8 February 1961, Page 13

Need For Development Of All-Weather Tracks

rpHE Immediate need for the developments of prepared running tracks in New Zealand is emphasised by the manager of the 1960 New Zealand Olympic Games team (Mr H. I. Austad) in his report to the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association.

Mr Austad, who is president of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association, based this report upon his observations in Rome and other European centres, and upon the great improvement in times noted by all New Zealand athletes who trained and competed in Rome. He says: "While it is not the direct concern of the Olympic Association to see that prepared athletic tracks are provided in New Zealand, it is worthy of comment in this report that New Zealand is woefully deficient in this regard. Cities of any size on the Continent have numerous prepared tracks and Rome, in particular, had seven or eight of them, any one of which would be better than anything we have in New Zealand.

"That our athletes can do so well after a preparation on grass during the winter season and on top of that the sudden change from winter to summer Conditions, is a tribute to their great ability and tremendous potential.

"I know the problem here because the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association has endeavoured to do something about it for years. Most of our sports grounds are owned by local bodies who, apart from the finance involved, do not wish to limit the use of public grounds by putting a permanent track around them and

hence restricting the use of the grass enclosure.

"Now that the prowess of our athletes has been so strongly demonstrated at Rome, and New Zealand must have received hundreds of thousands of pounds worth of publicity as a result, maybe the Government may feel disposed to link with the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association and support some plan in co-operation with selected local bodies in order to get something moving soon in this important direction.

“Since the team has returned, I am gratified to learn that Auckland is already well on the way to success in establishing its prepared track, and that Dunedin la following suit If we can make a start with these tracks in one or two of our centres, the movement will be on the way and it should then be merely a matter of time before other cities and centres follow suit Debt to Athletes

“New Zealand owes to its athletes the provision of facilities to enable them to prepare under conditions which are essential when they compete at Olympics. At this stage we should assure the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association of our wholehearted support in a general move forward to remedying this deficiency of so many years past’’

As Mr Austad says, any support which the Government or local bodies can give to this movement will be most welcome. This does not, however, discharge the athletic bodies from their own obligation to hasten the pro-

vision of these very necessary facilities for the use of their own athletes.

Little has been heard in recent weeks ot the plans of the Canterbury athletic centre in regard to the building of a prepared track in the near future. The City Council’s reserves committee is to the fore with plans for a functional track at Cuthbert’s Green, but it would be more reassuring if the athletic centre were to make public its own plans also.