Athletic Assn. Replies To Pole Vaulters

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31226, 25 November 1966, Page 14

Athletic Assn. Replies To Pole Vaulters

The Canterbury Athletic Centre has accepted an offer of a pole vault box at Rugby Park.

Members of the centre’s management committee made the decision at their monthly meeting last evening.

The chairman (Mr R. Elder) said that the offer would enable a second pole vault pit to be installed so that athletes would be able to compete with the benefit of the wind.

Mr Elder was answering one of several criticisms contained in a letter from Canterbury's three leading vaulters—C. Stricke, S. Leary and J. Chadderton.

The letter, expressed concern at “the lack of safety precautions taken to ensure the well-being of athletes taking part in this event” and the attitude of some of the top executives at Rugby Park which was described as “almost anti-good athletics.” The meeting, after discussing several of the letter's main points, went into committee and carried the following motions: “The manager of the meeting has authority over the control of the meeting at all times;” and “the centre is aware of the conditions of the pole-vault and the matter will be corrected as soon as practicable.” Dangerous Conditions The letter said that in spite of repeated requests for a standard 16ft square pit over the last three seasons, athletes had been treated to this only for championship meetings.

The pit used at present for inter-club meetings was only about 9ft by lift, with gaps between the bags and hard ground underneath. Injuries were not infrequent and in spite of protests from the country’s top-line pole vaulters, the same conditions remained, said the letter. The pole vault pit that was used when the national athletes were at Rugby Park, was filled with an extra 20 bags filled with rubber chips, said Mr Elder.

He did not deny that the centre had responsibility for the vaulting facilities and the vaulters’ well-being, or that they did not have a good pit. The cost of padding to fill the pit had been about £6O. Mr Elder said. “But prices have gone sky-high and the last price I heard was £150.” Mr G. I. Anderson said that rubber chips covered with

canvas had cost the Technical club £250. Replying to » claim In the tetter that athletes shifting the pit to take advantage of a southwesterly wind had been told loudly not to do so last Saturday, Mr Elder said the athletes had shifted the pit and were going to shift the pole vault box.

Their event was to start at 1.45 p.m.. and when he saw them doing this it was 2 p.m. The job would have taken another 15 minutes, so he had told the athletes to shift the pit back to the box. "It would have been !.2O p m. before they could have started.” It the athletes wanted to Make Sacrifices

sacrifice travelling subsidies, the centre could provide more adequate padding, said Mr W A. Kennedy.

Mr J. C. Harbut Mid he had been obtaining off-cuts and sweepings from the floor of .< Chrlslchurch Ann "which will suit us admirably." Only a limited amount could be collected at a time, and he had been filling a wool pack for a month.

Thirty-five wool packs would be required to till a ISft square Pit. Mr Elder: That will take six years.

He was trying to get as much as he could of the sweepings to supplement the chip con tents of four sacks that had been found rotting behind the grandstand, said Mr Harbut. The matter had not been left. It was still a costly project, he said.