14 countries out

Press, 21 July 1976, Page 1

14 countries out

NZPA staff corres Montreal

The mass withdrawal of Africans from the Olympic Games continued to haunt the competition on the second day, 14 countries having now walked out. Six matches in the soccer tournament were cancelled, Kenya failed to appear for its scheduled hockey match against West Germany and was struck out of its pool, and 65 African boxers have been missing from the preliminary rounds. Many boxers were again given walk-overs because their opponents had withdrawn, and the second round of the boxing is expected to be redrawm completely. The Olympic authorities said that 12 black African nations, plus Iraq and Guyana. have now officially signified they will not compete at the Games because of New Zealand’s participation. Another three have said they intend quitting but have not yet put it in ingThe Olympic authorities said yesterday that the Nigerian team was the only one to have left the village yet. but others are expected to follow soon. Nigeria was the first to announce, last Friday afternoon, that it was leaving the Games, and condemned New Zealand in strong language.

The International Olympic Committee has decided to defer any action against the defecting countries, but the matter will be raised again at a meeting of the full 1.0. C. congress at Prague next year. World newspapers have reacted strongly to the withdrawals from the Games, some commentators saying that politics could bury the Olympic movement for good. African press criticism of New Zealand was led by the “Zambia Daily Mail,” which branded New Zealanders as “a dubious species of humanity. "The New Zealanders are still very closely associated with the scum of way-back British society, sent as convicts to the Far East with the hope they would perish,” the Govern-ment-owned daily said. It called for developing countries to form an international games organisation of their own, concluding: “What the shameful events in Montreal have demonstrated is that the Olvmpic Games are primarily a white man’s imperialist affair.” Black African States themselves came under fire in West German papers. The “Allgemeine Zeitung” said the effect of the boycott had misfired because the African nations had not been able to agree on a common policy. ‘With this political theatre, the Africans have rather made themselves a laughing stock than frightened Olympia,” the paper said. More than 300 athletes

and 60 officials are involved in the African withdrawal. Sports affected already and those which will be affected include track and field, cycling, judo, boxing, shooting, swimming, hockey, and football. Hockey officials found it impossible to substitute Britain in the tournament as had been tipped earlier, and group B, in which New Zealand is playing, is down to five teams. This means that teams in the pool will play only four matches instead of five. New Zealand was drawn to play Kenya on Friday but instead will have a rest day. Track and field ■will begin on Friday, but it will be a pale shadow of the great programme which had been eagerly anticipated. Athletes from rhe African countries which have withdrawn from the Games have been barred from seeking treatment at the sophisticated clinic in the Olympic village. The clinic’s medical chief, Dr Jean-Paul Bedard, imposed the ban after dozens of athletes from the retired countries continued to demand attention for minor ailments, particularly physiotherapy.

“Some of them even came asking that we provide them with new spectacles free of charge,” Dr Bedard said. “Others just wanted to use the facilities. I felt we have an obligation to attend the athletes who are still competing.”

Games report*. Pl 8 and back page