Olympic hopefuls helped

Press, 15 February 1984, Page 52

Olympic hopefuls helped

Individuals and teams considered to be medal prospects and potential finalists at the Los Angeles Olympics have benefited by $290,000 in the latest list of grants made by the New Zealand Sports Foundation. Rowing benfits most from the grants. It receives $90,000, the largest single grant ever made by the sports foundation. Other sports which have received large grants are canoeing ($55,000) and yachting ($40,100). Canoeists last year won a silver and bronze medals at the world championships, and yachtsmen have placed high in world championships in the last two years. The 470 class crew of David Barnes and Hamish Wilcox have won the last two world championships in their class. Announcing the grants at a luncheon in Wellington yesterday, the chairman of the foundation, Mr G. J. Davey, said the Olympic preparation programme aimed to place support behind New Zealanders with a chance of winning medals. Mr Davey added that assistance to New Zealand

athletes was minor in comparison to the financial backing received by athletes from other nations. “The United States has decided to spend about $llO million preparing its team of about 700. Although this will be spread over a total of about 2000 athletes, the general level of assistance made available to American participants will be many times more than the foundation can afford to give New Zealand competitors.”

The foundation named crews and individuals it considered medal prospects. They are the rowing coxed eight and four; lan Fergusson in 500 m single kayak; Alan Thompson in the 1000 m single kayak; and Thompson and Fergusson, or lan McDonald in the 500 m or 1000 m double kayak; Craig Adiar in the kilometre cycling time-trial; Anthony Mosse in the 200 m butterfly, and the 470 class and Tornado class in yachting.

Rowing’s grant reflected the outstanding performances by New Zealand rowing crews in the last two years and the fact that two

of the four rowing crews likely to participate in the Olympics are the present world champions.

The full list of grants announced by the foundation yesterday were:— Rowing: $90,000. The grant will provide personal assistance to individuals and coaches; additional accommodation expenses at the Olympics; and the cost of training camps. Canoeing: $55,000. The grant is for the preparation of the New Zealand canoeing team. Yachting: $40,100. The grants are broken down to $12,600 for the 470 crew, $lO,OOO for the Tornado crew; $10,500 for the Soling crew and $3500 each for the Finn and wind surfer classes.

Swimming: $19,000. The grant will be shared among several competitors. Mosse will receive $5OOO, Michael Davidson $4OOO, Brett Austin and Mark Graham, a diver, $4OOO each, and Hisashi Inomata, the coach of Mosse, Davidson and Austin, $2OOO, to assist in the preparation of the New Zealand Olympic team.

Women’s hockey: $18,650. The grant will be used for preparation of the team. The foundation has provided a contingency to meet the 1 cost of personal grants to individuals.

Track and field: $20,000. John Walker and Mike O’Rourke will benefit from the grant, but O’Rourke’s grant is subject to him being free of injury. Equestrian: $7OOO. The grant will be divided between Mark Todd and John Cottle.

Shooting: $4OOO. John Woolley receives the grant to assist with his preparation for the Olympics. Men’s hockey: $15,000. The grant will be used to assist in the team’s preparation. Provision has also been made for grants to individual members.

Archery: $7OOO. Neroli Fairhall and Ann Shurrock have been granted $4OOO and $3OOO respectively to assist with their training for the Olympics.

Boxing: $7OOO. Kevin Barry and Michael Kenny have each received $3500.