N.Z. team not disgraced at 21st Olympics

Press, 3 August 1976, Page 36

N.Z. team not disgraced at 21st Olympics

By j

Alan Graham,

N.Z.P.A. staff correspondent

John Walker’s gold medal in the 1500 m on Sunday morning capped off a fine 1976 Olvmpic Games effort by the 87-strong New Zealand team. The hockey team also won a gold medal, Dick Quax won a silver medal in the 5000 m and the rowing eight won a bronze medal.

Rod Dixon was fourth in the 5000 m, Rebecca Perrott fourth in the 400 m freestyle and the coxless rowing four were fourth in their final These three all came within whispers of medals.

Others to win Olympic certificates for finishing ' n the first six in their event were Mark Paterson and Brett Bennett in the 470 class yachting (they came fifth), Euan Robertson in the 3000 m steeplechase (sixth) and the coxed rowing four (sixth). John Walker came to Montreal with immense pressure on him as New Zealand’s major hope at the Games, and this pressure did not ease with the withdraw! of the Tanzanian world record-holder, Filbert Bayi. On the track. Walker was magnificent, winning his heat, semi-final and the final, striding clear in each case and never allowing himself to be badly boxed or troubled. Thousands of Kiwis in the big crowd at the Olympic Stadium gave him a magnificent reception, waving at least a dozen New Zealand flags and several banners. Walker recognised them all during his lap of honour, and stopped to give special waves. The hockey team was another matter. They came to Montreal with, the world’s seventh ranking but were given almost no chance of making the semi-finals, let alone winning the gold medal.

They played well, drawing with the Munich gold medallists, West Germany, drawing with the higher-ranked Spain and then beating Belgium in early matches.

But luck was also on their side, primarily in Belgium’s surprise win over Spain, which forced Spain into a

play-off with the Kiwis for the last semi-final spot. The Kiwis beat Spain, then beat the Netherlands‘in the semifinals, and with Australia having kindly eliminated both India and Pakistan, the scene was set for a memorable Anzac final. New Zealand won 1-0, and all the pundits agreed that it should have been at least

2-0. Quax had known failures at Munich and Christchurch after his memorable 1500 m silver medal at Edinburgh, and he knew failure again in Montreal when illness cut him down and prevented his qualifying for the 10,000 m final. He bounced back in the 5000 m, and in a grandstand finish which saw two New Zealanders among the six who battled around the last bend, Quax narrowly failed to outspring the winner, Lasse Viren. Five metres further back, Dixon came close to winning his second Olympic bronze medal. Other track performances saw Euan Robertson set a New Zealand record in the steeplechase and Anne Garrett also set a national figure in the heats of the 1500 m, despite being eliminated. Jack Foster was seventeenth in the marathon, where Kevin Ryan failed to finish. Sue Jowett made the second round of both sprints, without reaching the semiI finals. Miss Garrett was eliminated in the 800 m heats, as was Dianne Zom in the 1500 m heats and Murray Cheater in the hammer qualfying round. John Walker failed to qualify in the 800 m heats, but said later that this could have been a blessing in disguise — several of his 1500 m opponents who did well in the 800 m looked tired in the 1500 m.

The rowing eight could ni produce their gold medal < Munich but their third was strong effort considering tl

strength of the Eastern Europeans and the rapid strides made by the British silver medal crew. The two fours also rowed creditably to make their finals, and the coxless four was just feet away from a medal. Rebecca Perrott surprised by coming within 16/100ths of a second of a bronze medal in the 400 m freestyle. She also came ninth over 200 m and thirteenth over 100 m. Monique Rodahl joined a small band of Kiwis to make an Olympic swimming final — she came eighth in the medley, and was also eleventh and twenty-second in her backstroke events. Lynn Rowe had two thirteenths and a fourteenth, Allison Calder an eleventh and a fifteenth, Susan Hunter a tenth and a twenty-third, Mark Treffers an eighteenth and a seventeenth, Brett Naylor a tenth and a sixteenth, John Coutts a sixteenth and an eighteenth and John McConnochie a seventeenth and a thirty-third. Rebecca Ewert was twentyfirst in the diving. The yachtsmen disappointed. The 470 crew was fifth after leading the fleet into the last race with every chance of a medal. Perhaps they tried too hard for the gold, and missed out on the bronze as a result. The Flying Dutchman crew were twelfth and Jonty Farmer was fifteenth in the Finns — but they can do much better than this. The Soling crew was eighteenth, a slight improvement on Kiel in 1972. In cycling, Mike Richards was eliminated in the eighthsfinals of the pursuit after qualifying ninth. He is a strong prospect for the future. Rain in the road race hrnncrht twn fall*; for Vpm

lot Hanaray, and after Jamie of Richards withdrew, Garry s a Bell was left to battle alone the for his fifteenth in a big field.

lan Ballinger improved his Munich score and placing in smallbore rifle shooting to come twentieth. He could not find the touch that won him a bronze at Mexico City. ' Graham Mclntyre was nineteenth and Grant Taylor twenty-fourth in the running game. John Woolley looked a prospect for future Games with his twenty-sixth in the' skeet. None of the weight-lifters did very well. Rory Barrett was seventeenth and Brian Marsden eighteenth in their weights, while Phillip Sue failed to lift a total. They were not medal prospects, but had hopes of making the top 10. Don Cooper was eleventh in the 1000 m kayak canoe singles, while Rod Gavin and John Leonard were eighteenth in the 500 m kayak pairs—both crews going out in the semi-finals. The pair failed to make the semi-finals over 1000 m. As did lan Ferguson in the 500 m singles. David Jackson won New Zealand’s first Olympic boxing bout since 1928 with a good first bout t.k.o. win. He was beaten on points in his second bout by a Russian who later had a narrow points loss to the eventual gold medallist.

Robert Colley met a tough Russian in his first bout and lost on a third round t.k.o. The wrestlers, David Aspin and Barry Oldridge, both went out in minimum time, easily beaten in all four of their bouts. Both lost by first round falls in their final bout.

Illness to the horses reduced the four chosen equestrian riders to just one, Joe Yorke on Big Red. Three fences down in the elimination round of show jumping was enough to put riders out, and Yorke knocked down five fences. He was ranked thirtieth.

Almost every sport, including the big ones, had two prime comments to make after their events: “We need more overseas competition, especially in Europe, and we need more finance.”

Reporters heard these comments over and over, and no-one disagreed with the sentiments. AU that was left unsolved was just where the money is going to come from.