£8000 FOR OLYMPICS

Press, Volume CII, Issue 30312, 12 December 1963, Page 23

£8000 FOR OLYMPICS

Members Not Satisfied

There w*as not enough liaison between rowing and the British Empire and Olympic Games Association, delegates agreed at a meet.ng of the Canterbury Rowing Association, held last evening. They also agreed that they were “being led around a little bit” and did not "know what was going on” in spit* of the fact that the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association was represented on the association. The discussion was sparked off when '.lie meeting was told that the Internal Affairs Department had allocated £BOOO towards sending a team to the Olynv pic Games in Tokyo next year. It was felt that th.s figure indicated that a small team would be representing New Zeeland at the games, especially as it was understood that £BOOO was all the British Empire and Olympic Games Association had asked for. Rowing would be loking for a full representation, sa d the chairman (Mr B. R. WaElker). Mr W. Rid lards said that the size of the team should not be decided before athletes had shown their potentialities. Athletes should be selected for the team if they were good enough, not only if there was enough money to send them. The secretary (Mr R. J. Sl-.aw) read out a letter to the meeting which he intended forwarding to the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association. The letter stated: “A recent report from the British Empire and Olympic Games Association stated that a grant of £BOOO had been received from the Internal Affairs Department to subsidise the sending of a team to next year's Tokyo Olympics. "We have heard a further unconfirmed re,x>rt tltwl tins was the amount requested by the association. If this :s a fact we request that the I council ask the Olympic Games Association:— 1: Why a subsidy of only £BOOO was deemed 'sufficient to send a representative team to Tokyo. 2: Do they envisage making a further approach to the Government at some Later stage of an additional grant, "We are strongly of the lopinion that any athlete who (has proved to meet the required standard should have i the right tn be sent to represent his country. This year we could have a number of crews who have proved themselves against rutematicial competition. Should this be the case. we believe they should be sent in "A” category and not through reasons of finance be relegated to "B” category, concluded the letter.