A.G. PYNE: AN ATHLETE OF RARE POTENTIAL LOST TO N.Z.

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30633, 26 December 1964, Page 11

A.G. PYNE: AN ATHLETE OF RARE POTENTIAL LOST TO N.Z.

r T’O persons not fully conversant with the sport of athletics, its enormous demands or its many frustrations, the defeat of A. G. Pyne by W. D. Baillie over three miles in the international meeting at Lancaster Park last Saturday only served to confirm their belief that the 21-year-oid schoolteacher was not ready for Olympic representation when the New Zealand team was chosen. Nothing could be further from the truth. For Pyne to turn in a time of 13min 23sec, the equivalent of 13min 51sec for the 5000 metres Olympic distance, was almost unbelievable. Had he been competing in the Olympic 5000 metres, this time would have been good enough to make him the fourth fastest qualifier and theoretically would have given him sixth place in the final, equal with Baillie. However, it is only fair to point out that the Olympic event was run in heavy rain.

It is impossible to obtain ■a really accurate comparison but these figures at least show beyond a shadow of doubt that Pyne received a raw deal in being rejected from the New Zealand Olympic team. He proved that his best time for three miles of 13min 21.6 sec, also achieved in running second to Baillie, was not an isolated effort. And he did so after months of extensive training for an entirely different branch of athletics—cross country. He had little more than a week to sharpen up for the track after winning the final New Zealand cross country trial at Masterton, a build-up which

normally takes about six weeks, and to finish inches behind the experienced Baillie after taking the brunt of most of the front running was an achievement of major proportions. Pyne is virtually a selfmade athlete. During the last two years he has done much of his training on his own. When told by friends that he would do much better if he was to move to Auckland and get in with A. L. Lydiard and “his boys,” he only became more determined to achieve his goal from here.

He had invitations to compete at the other international sponsored meetings throughout the country but turned them all down. He decided that he was going to make one big effort before leaving for America and he was going to do it in Christchurch; another example of the high principles which have guided him throughout his athletic career.

The rights or wrongs of Pyne’s exclusion from the Olympic team are of course a matter for Individual opinion. But it is fairly widely acknowledged that his invitation to take up an athletics scholarship in America came through the prominent coach, J. Bush, as a result of his exclusion.

It is also generally accepted that had Pyne been chosen for Tokyo, New Zealand would have continued to have access to his athletic brilliance during the best years of his career, which are yet to come. As it is, he leaves for America on

January 15 for a four-year stay which could possibly jeopardise his selection as a New Zealand representative for the Mexico City Olympics in 1968. Pyne is well aware that he will have to run for his bread and butter in the United States and is well prepared for it. Unfortunately, it is possible that the constant competition will prevent him realising

Golf is good for you, Golfers are bad: Wish I hadn't have, Had all I had.

his full potential. On the other hand, a solid sprint training schedule could turn him into a world-beater virtually overnight. Whatever happens, it must be obvious to the most unobservant official that New Zealand is losing an athlete of great potential, a man of the highest principles, and at a time when sports writers are emphasising the lack of depth to the sport in the Dominion. Many persons wish him every success in his venture overseas: everybody wishes he was not going.