Another Games venture off in Christchurch

Press, 8 December 1976, Page 1

Another Games venture off in Christchurch

After nine days of planning the Neu Zealand Amateur Swimming Association has abandoned the international series it hoped would replace the New Zealand Games swimming competition in January.

The council of the association discussed the series in committee for 80 minutes last evening before making the decision and releasing a bald statement through the chairman (Mr M. R. Duckmanton). It said: “Due to factors beyond the control of the N.Z.A.S.A. we regretfully abandon the international swimming series.” It was intended to have teams from Australia. Canada, the United States and Japan for the series, which involved a one-day carnival at Dunedin on January 19; a three-day meeting at Christchurch on January 21, 22 and 23; and a final oneday carnival at Palmerston North on January 28. After releasing the first

statement, Mr Duckmanton, the president (Mr I. N. Chadwick) and the generalsecretary (Mr R. N. Forster) adjourned for five minutes to elaborate on it. Their second statement said the association was prepared to commit up to 810,000 of its income for the present year on the series, but it had been forced by devaluation and increasing costs to abandon the project. Some members of the council felt the statement should have been more specific and spelt out that some of the. support which the association had been seeking was not forthcoming. The time factor was very crucial, said Mr Chadwick. Ticketing arrangements had to be made this week because an air fare rise was imminent. After the meeting Mr

Duckmanton would not comment further on whether lack of support from the three major sponsors was responsible for the decision to abandon the meeting. Asked if any overseas competition would be arranged for the national championships in March, Mr Duckmanton said it had not been considered: the time available to arrange for an overseas team to come here was short, he added. He was worried that there might be another spate of retirements from top swimmers now that rhe hope of international competition this season had disappeared, and that the credibility of the N.Z.A.S.A. might falter in the eyes of some of its centres. “But we have a job to administer and we have to do it responsibly.”