New Zealand facing sporting isolation

Press, 7 August 1976, Page 4

New Zealand facing sporting isolation

By

JOHN COFFEY

Unless there is a marked change in New Zealand’s attitude to sporting contacts with South Africa, sportsmen from this country might soon be banished from international competitions, said Tony Ineson, of Christchurch, captain of the New Zealand hockey team which won the gold medal at the Olympic Games in Montreal.

Ineson was critical of the attitude of the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon) and the Government, and rejected statements made by the chairman of the New Zealand Olympic Association (Mr Lance Cross). “All that is needed is for Mr Muldoon to back down—and it would not be easy for him to do so — on his statements in support of teams, rugby or otherwise, travelling to South Africa,” Ineson said. Although many other countries were involved with South Africa in reciprocal tours in various sports, they were not doing so with the public blessing of their governments — “and a reversal of our Government’s policy is all that the Africans are asking for on that point,” Ineson said. Ineson preferred to reserve his opinions as to whether South Africa should be completely isolated in sport. But he added that he was “very concerned” about New Zealand’s sporting future, and whether New Zealanders would be able to continue to play against their counterparts from other nations, including Africans.

In reply to Mr Cross's comment that “people (in Montreal) were unconscious of the African withdrawals,” Ineson was emphatic that the track and field and boxing programmes were robbed of much of their glamour, and that other sports were influenced to a lesser extent.

"I do not agree with Mr Cross’s remarks and general attitude; he was pretty nar-row-minded. To say that the absence of the Africans went unnoticed and had no effect on the Games is a load of rubbish, an incredible statement.

“To take out something like 30 countries involves a lot of participants. As John Walker said, what was a 1500 metres final without Filbert Bayi? Then again, the 800 metres lost much of its appeal when Mike Boit did not race, but the principle example will always be Walker running without Bayi,” Ineson said. No doubt it would have been easy for Ineson to gloss over the loss of only Kenya from the hockey tournament. But, even though Kenya was quite lowly ranked. Ineson said that it might have caused upsets that would have had an eventual bearing on the medal allocation. Ineson’s now strong views on sporting contact with South Africa were formed as a result of what occurred in Montreal.

“Before the Games I did not think the Africans would withdraw; the threats were there, as they had been on other occasions. I had not given it much thought, but we New Zealanders soon realised that we were bloody lucky to be able to stay in Montreal.” The outlook for New Zealand, Ineson said, was not bright. It was probable that

the International Olympic Committee and bodies governing individual sports would soon have to choose between the nations which boycotted Montreal, and New Zealand. By sheer weight of numbers, New Zealand’s position w*» tenuous.

“It is likely that either New Zealand or the Africans will be tossed out, and f nothing is change . in Government thinking then it will be New Zealand. We will be on the outer then, along with South Africa and Rhodesia," Ineson said.

“This sort of thing destroys the Olympics. And there is more to think of than just Moscow in 1980; the present feeling is that the Africans will not attend the Commonwealth Games in Edmonton in 1978 if New Zealand participates. Without Africa, a considerable chunk of the Commonwealth will be missing.” Not all of Ineson’s Montreal memories will be linked with New Zealand hockey’s finest hour. There were also the early days when members of the New Zealand team chose alternative clothing and closeted their blazers to avoid embarrassing meetings in the Games village. “The Africans were bitterly disappointed, and were not' particularly happy with us, even if they realised that it was not the fault of New Zealand sportsmen,” Ineson Sa ‘ d - . -IK His views are shared by many of his hockey teammates. When asked whether the players would make themselves available to any invitation to tour South Africa, Ineson said that “a good number” would withdraw from contention — “some of them feel very strongly on this.”