Paper warns of Games threat

Press, 27 May 1981, Page 5

Paper warns of Games threat

NZPA Dublin The “Irish Times" has said that the organisers of the 1982 Commonwealth Games at Brisbane "may take the course of least resistance” if threatened with an African boycott. The daily newspaper, in a front-page story, was commenting on the effects of the tour of South Africa by an Irish rugby team, which includes players from Northern Ireland.

The possibility of Northern Ireland's exclusion from the Brisbane Games was “a live issue,” the newspaper said. “The organisers may take the course of least resistance if faced with threats of an African walkout.”

The Supreme Council for Sport in Africa, which organised a black African boycott of the 1976 Olympic Games because of a South African rugby tour of New Zealand earlier that year, has repeatedly sought sanctions against countries maintaining sports links with South Africa. Two top Irish athletes, Ray Flynn and John Treacy, had lost invitations to compete in Norway and England because of the Irish tour, the “Irish Times" said.

Treacy, twice the world crosscountry champion, previously had been listed to run in a stellar 5000 m race in Gateshead, England, on June 7, but his name had disappeared from the final entry. Flynn had been cold-should-ered by the organisers of an international meet in Oslo, where he had planned to contest the 1500 tn.

The main attractions at both

meetings will be the Ethiopian Olympic medallists, and the “Irish Times” said that the threat of an Ethiopian boycott had cost the two Irish Olympians their invitations.

Ireland's best middle-distance runner, Eamonn Coghlan, was due to run in Oslo on July 11, but that would now be doubtful, the newspaper said. The Irish rugby tour manager, Paddy Madigan, said of the Treacy and Flynn decisions: “Rugby governs its own affairs and does not intrude on any other sport. "Obviously I am very sorry if any athletes. Irish or otherwise, are excluded from participating in any event.”