World titles ‘could set rowing back’

Press, 5 July 1977, Page 32

World titles ‘could set rowing back’

PA Dunedin The expense of staging the 1978 world championships at Lake Karapiro could set New Zealand rowing back years, according to Mr Ted Lindstrom, the president of the Canterbury Rowing Association.

The championships had come to New Zealand too soon, Mr Lindstrom said in Dunedin.

Financially, rowing in New Zealand was still struggling for its life, he said. The New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association was now faced with the additional problem of raising $120,000 as its share of the building costs of new facilities at Lake Karapird. Much of the fund-raising would have to come through clubs which badly needed the money themselves for equipment and travelling expenses, Mr Lindstrom said. The over-all effect would be to severely restrict the activities of the clubs, and it might well take four or five years for the sport to recover.

Once the championships were over, New Zealand would be forced to lie low on the international scene for a while, Mr Lindstrom said.

The effort of maintaining international standing and prestige was proving too costly. New Zealand could not really afford to send a crew to this year’s championships in Amsterdam, but virtually had to as a public relations exercise, he said. In the end it was the club oarsmen — the lifeblood of the sport — who suffered. Mr Lindstrom said that it was a tragedy the N.Z.A.R.A. had not been able to spare the money to employ Rusty Robertson as a full-time national coach. His departure to Australia after last year’s Olympics at

Montreal was a tremendous loss.

Rowing, perhaps more than most sports, demanded precise teamwork and technique and terrific concentration. Continuity of coaching was essential, and New Zealand lost this along with Mr Robertson, Mr Lindstrom said.

The coxed fours crew,

which would represent New Zealand at the world championships this year, appeared to be training under the handicap of too many different coaches, he said. “I’m not criticising the coaches at all, they are good blokes,” Mr Lindstrom said, “but the present situation is bad for the crew and rowing in general.”