THREAT OF RAIN DURING GAMES

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31115, 19 July 1966, Page 19

THREAT OF RAIN DURING GAMES

(From

BRUCK HEWITT,

N.Z.P.4. Game* Correspondent)

KINGSTON (Jamaica). Rain could be a greater threat to the coming Kingston Empire and Commonwealth Games than to any since the Auckland Games of 1950.

The last games were held in baking summer heat in Perth and there was seldom the possibility of rain.

In Kingston the rainy season began about a month later than usual this year, and until September there is the threat of the kind of tropical downpour which

flooded the streets for an hour or so yesterday.

But the rain soaked into the Games stadium’s en tourt cas track in a matter of minutes and there was not a single pool of water anywhere on the stadium. The rain threat during the Games could be chiefly to the crowds who may be in for some heavier soakings than the spectators at Eden park and the Newmarket pool took during the 1950 Games.

Late afternoon is the favourite time for the skies to open and the night outdoor programmes of track and field events, boxing and cycling may not be affected greatly. The athletes’ warm-up track outside the main stadium has been specially designed to absorb heavy rainfall quickly, and Games officials say that when it is completed it will be the best of its kind in the world from this aspect. While the Sunday afternoon downpour was on, officials were working quietly in the stadium offices allocating space in the Games village on the University of the West Indies campus, ready for the arrival of the first team, the Australians, on July 20. It is not yet known which part of the village will be allotted to the New Zealand team of 81 athletes and officials. Few Days’ Grace Mr MacDonald, president of the Kingston Games organising committee, said yesterday that the 12 countries which had not made official entries up to the closing time at midnight last night would be given a few days’ grace to get their entries in. “All the bigger teams are in,” he said, “and we want to give the smaller countries every opportunity to compete.” Jamaica still hopes to top the record entry of 35 countries at the Cardiff Games in 1958 and the last Games at Perth. Trying Conditions New Zealand athletes coming to Jamaica for the Games Record Equalled.—A Malaysian entrant to next month’s Commonwealth Games, M. Jegathesan, on Sunday equalled the Games record of 46.35ec In the 400 metres at a Singapore Athletic Association meeting.

next month and travelling to Mexico City for the 1968 Olympics will face probably the most trying conditions of climate our competitors have ever had to contend with abroad. The Empire Games team will fly from New Zealand's midwinter to the steamy midsummer heat of the Caribbean. On the way to and from Jamaica they will sample the controversial 7400 ft altitude of Mexico City and will learn something of the trials ahead for New Zealand’s Olympic athletes in two years’ time. The change in 1968 will be

from New Zealand spring weather to Mexico's autumn, but in terms of physical adjustment it could be more testing than coming to the sweltering Caribbean In July. Journalists from New Zealand and Australia who have experienced both conditions in the last fortnight have found it easier to adjust to Jamaica’s sticky swelter than to the rather unreal atmosphere of Mexico City—a tropical climate made almost temperate by the city's altitude. More expert views differ as widely as those of the New Zealand Olympic coach A. L. Lydiard found that at 49, he could adjust to running long distances in Mexico tn three weeks. He has recommended a four weeks’ adjustment period for properly conditioned athletes coming from sea level. Clarke has condemned the altitude outright and has called the Mexico City Games a “betrayal” of the athletes coming from abroad. Lydiard on his own experience differed strongly and said that he saw no reason why distance runners should not adjust in four weeks and sprinters in a shorter period, possibly a fortnight Becoming Excuse He suggested that the altitude question was becoming an excuse for coaching failures and unfit athletes. In many ways the altitude row at this stage is a great misfortune for the Mexico City Games, because it is overshadowing the great advantages Mexico has as an Olympic venue.