Coach reticent on team’s target

Press, 22 October 1983, Page 64

Coach reticent on team’s target

PA Wanganui Dudley Griffen, coach of the New Zealand road team at the world junior cycling championships, has a target for his riders in the 70km teams time trial which will start the championships in Wanganui tomorrow. But what it is, Mr Griffen refuses to say. Notorious for playing cards close to his chest, Mr Griffen refuses to discuss specific aspects of his team’s race plan and championship targets, brushing questions aside with a wave of his hand and a sly grin. Mr Griffen is willing to offer hints at the prize he expects his charges to achieve but he avoids ques-

tions which try to pin him down: “We’ve got a very strong side here,” he says, “strong on ability and strong on experience. “We’ve got guys like Stephen Swart, who is a top junior, and we’ve got two or three others who are probably equal to him, but what I want from the boys and what I’ve asked them to go for — our plan if you like — I’m not saying.

“I don’t know if these boys are good enough to win medals — anyway I’m not talking about medals.”

The reason for Mr Griffen’s reticence is not so much that he is not sure how well the New Zealand youngsters will respond to

the demands of international competition, but that he is not certain how strong that competition will be.

“I have no idea what the standard is going to be,” he says. “I can only go on times set at last year’s world championships.

“Those times are what our training has been based on. At least we’ve reached that level and now all we’re doing is sharpening off preparation. “The trouble with working with last year’s times is that I don’t know what the other competitors, the Russians, the Dutch, the Belgians or the Italians have been doing this year,” Mr Griffen says.