Miss Shipston SWIMMING ASSN MUST DECIDE

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31662, 24 April 1968, Page 18

Miss Shipston SWIMMING ASSN MUST DECIDE

(New Zealand Press Association) WELLINGTON. The New Zealand Olympic and British Commonwealth Games Association last evening put the responsibility on the Amateur Swimming Association of deciding whether a proposed training trip to Townsville, Queensland, by the Olympic Games nominated swimmer, Miss T. K. Shipston (Canterbury), would endanger her amateur status.

The swimming association had asked the games association for a ruling on the legality of the proposed trip. The administration committee of the games association executive last week forwarded to the swimming association the Olympic amateur rules on amateur status.

The committee told the swimming association that as it knew more of Miss Shipston’s plans in Australia than the Olympic association, it should decide, with the rules before them, whether Miss Shipston would violate the terms.

The executive last evening endorsed the action of its administration committee. The chairman of the executive, Mr C. L. S. Cross, said that among the rules forwarded to the swimming asso-

ciation were the six weeks limit imposed on “camp” training, which includes the period immediately before the Olympic Games, the question of whether the training would interfere with employment or studies, and the fact that any subsidised travel by firms because of athletic ability made an athlete no longer an amateur.