Costs may catch rowers

Press, 22 February 1978, Page 36

Costs may catch rowers

By

TIM DUNBAR

New Zealand oarsmen could be at an ironical disadvantage when the world rowing championships are held at Lake Karapiro in eight months time. Certainly, the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association has been spared the expense of sending crews to Europe this year but its financial situation is little improved. Such is the cost of providing the appropriate facilities for a world championship regatta at Karapiro that the budget for the New Zealand team might have to be trimmed. A beautiful building there, fine starting platforms and all that sort of business and New Zealand rowers using second-hand boats; that is the bad dream which Fred Strachan, convener of the national selectors, has been having lately. I Mr Strachan said yester-)' day that there had been the! inevitable “bit of push-pull” involving finances for the New Zealand team and those : for actually staging the regatta. “And I hope the oars- j men'don’t miss out.” ; Nominations are still drift- . ing in to the selectors with ) the national championships two weeks away and Mr Strachan has not yet “dis- '

sected” them but he says there are 70 or 80 top oarsmen to choose from.

“We have enough oarsmen to have a reasonable chance in every event but the big financial strain may cause the association to opt out of a committment to buy the best boats for the crews,” he said. Plastic boats were to have

(been supplied from Germany I but Mr Strachan says the IN.Z.A.R.A. have been reluctant to confirm the orders until they have the money for the boats.

“They are having a meeting this week and I have advised that at least the association should order boats in certain classes.

“We must have top-class boats for our best crews

anyway. We might have to use borrowed boats for the third category.”

Mr Strachan said that a three-tiered system had been suggested-with the New Zealand team divided into those with a reasonable chance of a medal, those with a reasonable chance of reaching the final, and those with a reasonable chance of reaching the semi-finals.

But he confesses to being “a bit of a fan for giving the oarsmen the best they can possibly get.” This principle was particularly important with New Zealand having a chance of being on equal terms with other countries instead of being underdog. “Tire overseas rowing nations are spreading holy hell about the cost of coming here but they’re only doing what we’ve been doing for the last 10 years.”

Trials for the New Zealand team -are planned for the week after faster and the national selectors envisage the successful crews having an initial eight-weeks training under their coaches in various venues.

“After that they wif come together for about four weeks — three weeks at Mangakino and the final week at Karapiro,” Mr Strachan said. He is a little worried about

the prospect that the stint at Mangakino (90km south-east of Cambridge) might stretch the N.Z.A.R.A. budget and, secondly, that some oarsmen might be reluctant to take four weeks off work in light of the economic conditions. Accommodation has been booked for about 70 people at Mangakino at $lO a day a person and the bill will exceed $20,000.

“Altogether $70,000 is needed for the New Zealand team. That’s about what we’ve had to raise to send an eight to Europe and we’re getting a whole team for the money this time,” Mr Strachan said. It seems that the New Zealand rowing fraternity will certainly be getting more for its $70,000 in 1978 but a lot of the money still has to be raised for the two separate budgets.

-At the moment Mr Strachan is focussing his hopes on the Prime Minister (Mr Muldoon). “If the Government comes to the party and grants us the $lOO,OOO they promised instead of the $20,000 we actually got then it will mean the difference.” The second of four national raffles has just been launched and a mystery envelope appeal is planned for Canterbury “but the mone • is not coming in fast enough.”