High position for swimming official

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 33065, 4 November 1972, Page 4

High position for swimming official

After only four years on the International Swimming Federation’s technical committee, Mr A. J. Donaldson, of Christchurch, has been appointed its vice-chairman. Mr Donaldson, a driving force in New Zealand swimming for the past two decades, was the first New Zealander to be elevated to the committee when he was elected at Mexico in 1968, and he received the vice-chairman’s position at a meeting in Munich during the Olympic Games.

It comprises 12 persons from all parts of the world and is chosen by the bureau of the international body which appoints technical committees for swimming, synchronised swimming, diving and water polo.

Meetings were usually held during Olympic Games but now, with the advent of world championships between the Olympics, the body will convene more often.

A meeting is planned for Belgrade during the world contest next year, but many of the swimming committee’s matters were dealt

with by correspondence, said Mr Donaldson. The chairman of the technical committee, which deals with preparation of rules and the organisation of major competitions, is General Gobal, of the Egyptian army, and the secretary is from Sweden. Professionalism was a major issue at the meeting of F.I.N.A. in Munich. Any person who was a paid servant in swimming was ineligible for a position on the international bureau or its committees. The former secretary of the technical committee, Mr N. W. Sarsfield, is the fulltime secretary of the British Amateur Swimming Association and was obliged to step down from the committee.

Being a member of the committee has given Mr Donaldson numerous swimming contacts in many countries and he says this will be a great help in any future negotiations New Zealand wants to make.

Speaking of the running of the swimming events for the Commonwealth Games, he said that he forsaw no difficulties, adding that swimming was considered the easiest of sports to control at Munich.

New Zealand swimming would have to adjust its sights higher, he said, because it was hard to predict where world standards would level off. In fact, Mr Donaldson said, swimming may just be reaching a point where it would make rapid advances, both timewise and in technique.

One thing Mr Donaldson agreed with wholeheartedly was that long flights should be avoided when teams are travelling overseas.