White Uniform Preferred

Press, Volume CVIII, Issue 31862, 14 December 1968, Page 15

White Uniform Preferred

The difference between success and failure in Olympic competition was so minute that if there was any disadvantage, no matter how small, in the wearing of the traditional black uniform, it should be abandoned.

This is stated by the manager of the rowing team in Mexico (Mr B. R. Walker) in his report to the New Zealand Rowing Association.

In Mexico, the mornings and evenings were cool, with a marked rise in temperature after midday, Mr Walker said. The fours, at 11 a.m., rowed in their final in much cooler conditions than the eights at 2 p.m. Once the morning haze had cleared, the sun produced tremendous heat which was most noticeable to those wearing an official black blazer.

From the time of carrying out their boat for launching until the completion of the race, oarsmen were in the hot sun for 35 minutes. The New Zealand team wore black T-shirts with sleeves almost down to the elbows, he said, but it was noteworthy that both the first and second crews, West Germany and Australia, wore white singlets with only a small coloured band. Mr Walker sugested that a white singlet with a black shield incorporating the silver

fern would be attractive and would not absorb the heat. One of the effects of the altitude at Mexico was the muscle soreness and stiffness that rowers felt in the first two weeks of training in Mexico, Mr Walker said. The crews had trained only lightly in the first week and the oarsmen felt considerable shortness of breath and some suffered headaches. These effects, as expected, wore off. After the eights heats, crew members were fairly distressed, three of the bowside men being the worst affected, he said. Many crews other than New Zealand’s were affected by the altitude, he said. In the coxed pair event, the Frenchmen stopped before the halfway when the bowman collapsed and a medical pontoon raced to his assistance.