TEAM OF 61 FOR JAMAICA GAMES

Press, Volume CV, Issue 31061, 17 May 1966, Page 19

TEAM OF 61 FOR JAMAICA GAMES

Athletics Entry Cut; Few Other Surprises

Twenty of the 81 sportsmen and women nominated for New Zealand’s team for the Empire Games in Kingston, Jamaica, in August have been discarded by the selectors (Messrs G. L. S. Gross, P. N. Robinson and G. R. Moore). Half this number are athletes.

The team of 61—representing nine sports—was announced in Wellington last night at a meeting of the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association’s executive.

The decision on one nomination, the Canterbury three-mile runner, A. G. Pyne, has been deferred until June 30, when his performances in the current American season will be available.

One of the chosen boxers, R. P. Redden (Wellington), has been selected subject to his satisfying the selectors, in an acceptable trial bout, that his current form was consistent with his standard in 1965.

Forty-two of the competitors have been grouped in category A and the remaining 19 in category B. Those in the first group will be required!

to find £5O towards their fares; the others will have to meet the full amount of £425. The elimination of 20 competitors from the list of nominations has been made in spite of that Kingston is expecting a team of 60 men and 20 women from New Zealand. The selectors have named 48 men and 13 women. In 1962 New Zealand sent a team of 86 to Perth; four years previously a team of 64 competitors represented the Dominion at Cardiff.

The athletics and wrestling nominations have been

severely trimmed by the selectors. Ten of the 27 athletes have been eliminated and four of the six wrestlers have been assessed as not up to standard. On the other hand, swimming, with 10 competitors,

and fencing, with eight, have won a hearty vote of confidence. All the nominations in badminton, shooting, boxing and weight-lifting have been included, either in category A or B.