N.Z. girls’ curses turn to joy

Press, 4 October 1982, Page 27

N.Z. girls’ curses turn to joy

From

KEVIN TUTTY

in Brisbane

The New Zealand women's 4xloom freestyle relay team was sitting on the entrance steps to the Chandler pool, cursing the late arrival of a car to take them back to the Games village on Saturday evening.

A minute later they were leaping about with joy. They had just been told by a New Zealander, from the balcony of the poo), that they had won the bronze medal after the sensational disqualification of the Australian and Canadian teams, who had finished first and second respectively.

' Another minute and the girls would not have been present for the medal ceremony, The car, whose late arrival they had been cursing, arrived just as they were told of the extreme good fortune.

“We were grateful then

that it was late,” said a member of the team, Melanie Jones, yesterday morning. “We didn’t believe it at first, but then it struck us and we rushed in to get the medals.”

The four girls, Miss Jones, Pamela Croad, Kim Dewar and Gail Jonson, held a brief informal press conference at the village yesterday morning. They had to dash from the pool to the waiting car after the presentation ceremony.

Initially there was no sign of the medals at the press conference, but when asked by a photographer where they were, they quickly appeared from track suit pockets.

Australia and Canada were disqualified after a delay of 20 minutes. The final Canadian swimmer, Naomi Marubashi, and the third Austra-

lian swimmer, Diana Watts, were too quick off the blocks. Television replays later confirmed that the decision of the officials had been correct. The decision in fact had been made on evidence produced by the electronic timing gear. The printout showed that the swimmers had left their blocks before the incoming swimmer had touched the wall. Trevor Tiffany, the manager of. the Canadian team, complained about the use of electronic equipment to decide such a touchy matter. He said that judges should be used to decide whether a swimmer breaks. Had that

been the case the Canadians would still have been disqualified. The Canadian girl looked to be about a foot off the blocks before the incoming. swimmer touched the timing pad. The near capacity crowd at Chandler was in an uproar at the end of the event. Il was the most exciting of the evening. The Canadians had fought tooth'-and-nail over the 400 m, the Australians managing to beat off several Canadian challenges for the lead. Lisa Curry held off Miss Marubashi by a mere 15cm at the finish. An excited buzz reverberated around the pool as the partisan crowd awaited the raising of the Australian flag for the second time that evening. Earlier Tracey Wickham had won the 800 m freestyle final. But the excited buzz

turned to disbelieving groans when the electronic scoreboard suddenly altered and the names of Australia and Canada dropped to the bottom of. the board with the cryptic abbreviation “disq” beside them. One of the Australians burst into tears at the announcement and the other seven unfortunate swimmers were stony-faced.

Such ,has been the rivalry between these two countries, the emphasis on winning, that it was no surprise that the girls cracked under the extreme pressure thrust on them. Had the result stood it would have been Miss Curry's second gold of the day. In the afternoon, she won the 200 m medley final. The previous evening she won a bronze medal in the 100 m freestyle.