Stopping of runner

Press, 16 March 1982, Page 22

Stopping of runner

Sir, — Saturday, March 13, 1982, will surely be known as a black day in the history of road running in Christchurch. I refer to the manhandling of Brenton Joyce as he entered the chute at the finish of the Big M 10,000 m race — an episode that brought no credit to the organising club — the University of Canterbury and shame upon the persons concerned. Every civilised society needs rules to ensure its smooth and orderly conduct. The onus is on the society to ensure that those rules are enforced in a reasonable and intelligent manner; that was certainly not the case on Saturday. I suggest that the simple and- intelligent way for

the organisers to have handled this situation, of which they had had ample warning, was to have informed officials in the chute that Joyce was not to be given a time or place. As it was, the situation was handled in a mindless and repulsive way. — Yours, etc., GEO. W. LUCKING. March 15, 1982.

Sir, — Along with many others I was appalled at the treatment of Brenton Joyce, at the end of today’s 10,000 metre run. When three men, all of whom were bigger than Mr Joyce, go to such lengths to enforce commercialism, one wonders just how big the “Big M” people really are. If they imagine the cause of sponsorship has been improved by this performance they are sadly mistaken. Mr Joyce was not alone in not wearing his label but committed the unforgivable sin of challenging the system. When his principles are treated so contemptuously one is forced to question the worth of sponsorship. — Yours, 6tC. TED DILLON. March 13, 1982.