Tony Good among 14 nominations for Olympic Games

Press, Volume CXVI, Issue 34104, 17 March 1976, Page 38

Tony Good among 14 nominations for Olympic Games

(By

ROD DEW}

The 22-year-old marathon runner, Tony Good, is the sole Canterbury representative included in the list of 14 athletes nominated for the New Zealand team to contest the Montreal Olympics in .Inly,

However, another athlete; who has a strong association with Canterbury, Barbara: Beable (Wellington). has been, nominated for the pentathlon ; She had her athletic ground-, ing in Christchurch under the: guidance of the former Olytn-i pic coach (Mr Valdemars Briedis) and was one of the' province's leading women; athletes for manv years before moving north two seasons ago. Special meeting

The nominations, which include five women competi- , tors, were submitted bv the t national selectors (Messrs B , S. Hunt. G McCabe and A Potts) to a special meetinel, of the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association in Well-q ington last evening and later i, releasefi bv the acting chair- j man (Mr G. W. Jackman). There are no major sur-| £ prises -and the size of the , team is almost exactly what: was expected. j “I am very pleased,” Good. ; who will turn 23 on the davjj of the Olympic marathon said when told of his selection last evening. “Tn some]’ wav, I almost expected it. 1 don’t really know’ whv.” I Good gets his big chance: after running second to the;J amazing 43-vear-old veteran Jack Foster (Rotorua), in the " recent New Zealand cham-1 pionship, held over a difficult.; undulating course at Auckland. His time of 2hr 17min I 6sec. was outside th" oualifying time for the Olympics' hut the selectors obvionsh’]! took into account the nature"' of the course ]1 Lively debate Nevertheless, his choice I ahead of Mike Ryan (Auck-j land), who failed to finish the, New Zealand championship' because of injury but who ] had earlier bettered the quali-1 fying standard, is likely to be a subject for lively debate for; some time. Educated at Christchurch I Boys’ High School, Good is; only sft 3in tall and weighs,' Sst 71b. He freely admits! that he was “quite hopeless”; at running at school and I started his running career I i running in cross-country for It

,fun. He is not at all sure 'what prompted him to start i running seriously. It was only at the start of i this season that he decided ,to try for the Olympic team as a marathon runner. “I saw what the standard was for the 10.000 metres and ■there was no way I could do that. So I decided to try for the marathon. I had a trial at this in Hamilton last year and thought there was a chance.” \\ orhl cla-s

Foster, who will be 44 in: May, and Kevin Ryan (Auck ! land), who did not contest I ’he national marathon be-; cause of a thigh injury, are! the other two nominated for; the marathon. Foster, like; Good, has not bettered the qualifying standard of 2hr| 15min 20sec. although his] 2hr I (imin 27sec performance in the national event was a world class effort. Ryan’s nomination is subject to a special fitness test. The full team of 14 nominations is: MEN Murray Cheater (Auckland), hammer. Rod Dixon (Wellington). 5000 metres. Jack Foster (Waikato), marathon. Tony Good (Canterbury).: Dick Quax (Auckland),; 5000, 10.000 metres, marathon. Euan Robertson (Otago),] 3000 metres steeple-1 chase. Kevin Ryan (Auckland),; marathon. Peter Tracy (Waikato),! pole vault. John Walker (Auckland),; 800, 1500 metres. WOMEN Barbara Beable (Wellington), pentathlon. i Anne Garrett (Auckland), 800, : 1500 metres. Penny Hunt (Wellington), 400 metres. i Susan Jowett (Queensland), 100, 200 metres. Dianne Zom (Hawke’s Bay-: Poverty Bay), 1500 metres. The nominations have to] be in the hands of the New; Zealand Olympic and Com-i monwealth Games Associa-I

tion by April 2. Entries for the Games close on April 12 —the day the final team will probably be officially named. “it is quite a big team but it is a good one,” Mr Briedis said last evening. “I think it is just about right,” he said, indicating that he believed that the Olympic association’s selectors should not trim it in any way. Sixteen athletes went to the Munich Olympics four years ago and only Dixon, who was third in the 1500 metres, returned with a medal.

Mr Briedis believes that some of those chosen could improve further before the Games and offered a general warning to the team members not to take too big a rest before starting to build up. - He expressed special pleasure at the selection of Mrs Beable. “She really earned her place. I think she could finish quite high up in the Olympic pentathlon,” he he said One race Walker, the world, mile record-holder, has been nominated for both the 800 and 1500 metres but because of his recent achilles tendon problem might have to consider competing only in the longer distance.

“Ideally, he should sit : down for three months — land take it easy — but that lis not practicable,” Walker’s I medical adviser, Dr Lloyd Drake, said yesterday. “We ; have found a compromise. It I means John might have to i consider only the 1500 ] metres at Montreal and forjget about the prospect of entering the 800 metres." Quax, winner of the New Zealand Games 5000 metres ; last year, has been nominated for the 10,000 metres as well as this distance. His ' considerable basic speed and II considerable stamina make , him a medal prospect over : both distances, although he ;is expected to favour the | shorter one.

Dixon, in spite of his . great mile win over Filbert Bayi (Tanzania) in the United States, recently, has been nominated only for the 5000 metres. This is the; event in which it is generally accepted he has the greatest potential. Miss Jowett, a 19-year-old New Zealander who has lived in Australia for the last nine years, has been nominated for the sprints subject to her being eligible to represent New Zealand under both the Olympic rules and those of the New Zealand Olympic association. She is competing in the Australian championships next week-end and might yet win nomination for the Australian team as well. First vaulter Tracy, currently in the United States on an athletic scholarship, is subject to similar provisos. He recently became the first New Zealander to clear 17ft in the pole vault and is the first pole vaulter to be nominated for the New Zealand Olympic team. Although nominated for both the 800 and 1500 metres. Miss Garrett will only compete in the shorter event if no other athlete gains an eleventh-hour nomination for this event.

Apart from Mike Ryan in the marathon, only one other athlete who bettered the selectors’ qualifying standards, Christine Hughes (Waikato), failed to gain nomination. Her chance disappeared when she did not finish in the first two in either the 100 or 200 metres at the national championships.