Selected For Third Games

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30477, 26 June 1964, Page 13

Selected For Third Games

New Zealand wrestling has received a signal honour through the appointment of the world-ranked Christchurch referee and judge, Mr J. A. Mclnnes, to officiate at the Olympic Games in Tokyo this year.

It will be the first occasion for any sport that a New Zealander has acted as a judge or referee at three successive Olympics. Mr Mclnnes, a former national champion, took up refereeing in 1954, and in 1955 was appointed referee-judge at Melbourne. He was named one of the five best wrestling officials at the Games; at Rome, in 1960, he received official acknowledgement as being one of the top three. But he has no illusions about his position among the leading referee-judges in the world. Every official, regardless of experience, will be

on trial before the technical committee of the International Wrestling Federation at Tokyo, he said yesterday. “My international ticket will be at stake at Tokyo." he said. “I have to prove myself to nold it.” Referee-judges have to sit an examination at a clinic three days before the start of the Games, he said. At Rome, half of the 240 candidates failed. Mr Mclnnes said one mistake was sufficient to finish a referee-judge in the eyes of the technical committee. He has vivid recollections of being asked to take over a bout after the original referee had failed to measure up to standard. He will go to Tokyo secure in the knowledge that he is held in high esteem by both East and West. At Rome, he was in demand by both the Russians and the Americans

to control finals in which they were involved. Mr Mclnnes won his first Canterbury title as a bantamweight at the age of 15. The following year he was runnerup for the national lightweight championship and when he retired as New Zealand middle-weight champion, he had built up an impressive record of 233 bouts for only four losses.

A bomber pilot during the war, Mr Mclnnes won the Irish welter and middle-weight titles in 1943 and the championship of the troopship Andes on his way back to New Zealand in 1945. Since his retirement from the ring, Mr Mclnnes has become one of the leading figures in the sport. He has been convenor of the New Zealand selection panel for 10 years, is chairman of the judicial panel, the only South Island member of the national executive and as mat chairman controls all the refereeing and judging at New Zealand championships.