THE PRESS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1982. Commonwealth Games

Press, 12 October 1982, Page 16

THE PRESS TUESDAY, OCTOBER 12, 1982. Commonwealth Games

Satisfaction at the performances of the New Zealand team at the Commonwealth Games in Brisbane can be mixed with a sense of relief that the Games took place, without serious disruption from demonstrators, or from political wrangling among the States taking part. The New Zealand team has returned with 26 medals to its credit. The performances of the paraplegic archer Neroli Fairhall, and the runner Ann Audain, were among the outstanding achievements. Sports administrators have returned from Brisbane with less to be pleased about than the athletes. New Zealand is tied to a new “code of conduct” for all sports codes in their dealings with South Africa. New Zealand did not approve the code. The New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association is bound to seek its observance by all sports, including those not affiliated to the association. If the code is not observed, irrespective of the behaviour of the Games Association, New Zealand- may find its participation in the 1986 Games being challenged. Many New Zealanders deplore the intrusion of international politics into sporting occasions that once offered a respite from more serious and unhappy concerns. Others see justice in the policies that have led many members of the Commonwealth to insist that political considerations must be observed if the

Games are to continue. Given the attitudes of some Commonwealth members, and especially of African members towards South Africa, a determination to make political advantage from the Games is probably inevitable.

The Africans’ attitudes easily tempt the response that their own political systems, and their Governments' treatment of some of their citizens, are odious to outsiders. South Africa’s racial policies are highly visible and reduce easily to slogans of outrage. In some Commonwealth African countries political oppression is less easily defined than in South Africa, and less readily seen by outsiders; but it is no less real for that. The use of international sports occasions to score political points may yet find targets other than South Africa, which is not a member of the Commonwealth.

The New Zealand Games Association has still to examine the implications of the new code of conduct, and to decide how best to fulfil its obligations. Other sports, not least rugby, will have to decide how far they will accept the implications of a code not of their making. Hurdles stretch ahead for New Zealand competitors and administrators — the Olympic Games in 1984, a possible rugby tour to South Africa in 1985, New Zealand’s bid for the 1990 Commonwealth Games, and the 1986 Games in Edinburgh.