Selection still open

Press, 25 May 1984, Page 26

Selection still open

There is every chance that the New Zealand and Olympic Commonwealth Games Association will add names to the team for Los Angeles. Mr Roy Dutton, the chairman of the association, said from Wellington last evening that the New Zealand team might well be enlarged because of the increasing number of countries which have withdrawn from the Olympics. He said that the executive committee of the N.Z.O.C.G.A. had voted to reconsider the athletes who were nominated for the team, but who had missed selection. Asked if there was a good chance of athletes being added, Mr Dutton said that the committee was not meeting to delete anybody from the team. The withdrawal of countries has meant that, in some sports, the initial criteria for selection has altered, Mr Dutton said. Beforehand, whereas some nominee might have been out of the top 16, he or she might now be down to fourteenth instead of being twentieth. Mr Dutton added that the withdrawals had affected some sports, but stressed that it made no differences in other instances. Asked if someone, outside the athletes originally nominated and who had missed selection, might be considered, Mr Dutton said that the door was still open. “We will look at any nominations made by the Olympic committee.” Mr Dutton said that the selection panel would be convened as soon as pos-

sible Carmel Clarke and Anna Doig, the two swimmers excluded from the list of nominations, have missed only a week’s training since late March. But even during that week they continued with aerobic and weight training. Their coach. Mr John Beaumont, said from Hastings that the pair decided soon after they failed to achieve the Olympic qualifying times in March to begin a build-up for the New Zealand winter championships in Dunedin at the end of July. “They hoped to show there that they were worthy of selection for the Olympics at that meeting.” Both women had another reason to continue training. In August they leave for the United States where they will join the University of Alabama swihiming team which is coached by the chief coach of the United States Olympic team, Don Gambril. Mr Beaumont said that both women would be required to swim for their university team soon after arriving so they wanted to be in top shape. “The news that the Olympic selectors are reconsidering some of the selections has given them an additional spur for their training.” If the pair are chosen for the Olympics, Mr Beaumont believes they will both justify the selectors’ faith in them. Murray Steele, the only cyclist whose original nomination was declined, is one of the likely candidates for a place in the New Zealand

Olympic team should the selectors reconsider some athletes. The Hornby club cyclist, who announced his retirement in protest at his omission, is back in training, and intends riding in tomorrow’s 55km D.B. harbour race. His preparation has been hindered a little by work commitments and by poor weather, which has kept him off the roads, but he has not lost much in condition. “I’ve just got to wait until June 2,” he said. Graeme Spinks, one of the Canterbury judokas who was nominated but had his nomination rejected for the Games, was breathless last evening. Not because he learnt of a second chance to represent New Zealand at the Games, but because he was busy training at his Can-Am-Ju club for the forthcoming South Island championships. “It was very disappointing when I was rejected, but I’ve carried on; just kept going. I’m pleased to know that there is a second chance as the eastern bloc countries such as the Soviet Union and East Germany are strong at judo and they’re not going.” Those to miss selection originally were: Kevin Ryan (marathon); the boxer, Michael Sykes; the swimmers, Doig and Clark; the Judokas, Brent Cooper, Shaun O’Leary, Mike Smith, and Spinks; the skeet shooter, Murray Cameron; the gymnasts, Rowena Davis, David Lutterman and Tania Moss; and the equestrian rider, Andrew Scott.