MILLS NOT FORGOTTEN Games team selection methods — new move

Press, Volume CXIV, Issue 33650, 27 September 1974, Page 24

MILLS NOT FORGOTTEN Games team selection methods — new move

(By

R. O. DEW)

The Canterbury Athletic Centre has not forgotten its promise to try again to change selection procedures for New Zealand teams competing at Olympic and Commonwealth Games.

It has triggered a move which is a sequel to the controversial omission from the Commonwealth Games team earlier this year of the former New Zealand team captain and shot putter, L. R. Mills.

A Canterbury remit on the subject has been included on the agenda for the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association annual meeting in Wellington on October 18.

Widespread support is likely from other centres. A special sub-committee of the national association, formed to consider the question, will also be presenting its findings. These are known to coincide with Canterbury’s views. Canterbury wants member associations of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association to have the sole right to select their own competitors. Under the present system the Games association selectors choose the team they want from nomin-

ations forwarded by the various sports concerned. It has been said, and with some justification, that the Games association selectors cannot possibly have the same knowledge as the selectors representing the individual sports, Some apparently unjustified omissions from New Zealand athletic teams have occurred in the past, of which Mills was just one. But before any change can be made in selection procedures all sports in the Games association have to agree.

Titles clash Another controversial subject which will be brought up at the meeting by the Canterbury delegates (Messrs M. Flynn and J. G. Smart) concerns the clash of interests between track and field and cross-country. Many of the country’s leading distance runners will be absent from the national track championships in Dunedin on February 28 and March 1 because they will be representing the country at the international crosscountry championships in Manila. This is expected to make a farce of most of the middle and long-distance events — normally the feature events of the national championships programme.

This has occurred frequently in recent years and has always drawn scathing criticism from followers of the track and field side of the sport. But until now nothing specific has been done to rectify it.

Canterbury will present two alternatives. It will ask delegates to approve an alteration in the timing of future national track and field championships so that they do not clash with the international cross-country — held every two years. Alternatively, Canterbury will suggest that the travel arrangements of the crosscountry team be changed so that members can compete in the national championships before leaving for the international event.

Entries for future national championships will be unrestricted if the Auckland and Waikato centres gain support. They are both opposed to the present system, which restricts centres to three competitors and two others who have equalled or bettered a set standard for every event in track and field competition. In cross-country, centres can enter no more than 12 seniors, eight juniors, and eight women.

The West Coast-North Island centre is to propose a further refining of the rules relating to national records. It wants the present New Zealand resident records split, so that records set overseas and those set in New New Zealand will be kept in two different groups. This is in line with trends overseas.

The Northland, Wellington, and Waikato centres are sponsoring remits relating to the combining of the national junior championships with the senior meeting. If this is approved, an effort to introduce a new national championship meeting for boys and girls under 17 will be made. Canterbury, which has previously suggested this move, will support it.