Spinks accepts challenge

Press, 29 May 1984, Page 32

Spinks accepts challenge

Graeme Spinks (bottom), one of the two Canterbury judokas whose Olympic nomination was originally rejected, had kept on training with next week-end’s South Island championship in view. Now those championships will help sharpen him for the competition at Los Angeles. He is shown training with his brother Alan, in the garage ' of their Christchurch home last

evening. Spinks, aged 23, said he was “pretty elated” about being added to the Olympic team. “I thought I might have a very good chance when I heard they were reconsidering nominations. But you never know.” The Can-Am-Ju club member was reluctant to pick himself as a medal winner in his 78kg weight division. “It all depends on

the draw. If you get an easy draw you might be lucky. But I always take one fight at a time.” Spinks said that the standard of judo in Europe generally was very strong and the Americans, too, had put a lot of money into the sport in the last few years to improve standards. “It is still a very tough sport (without the Eastern Bloc). It is not going to be a breeze.”

With the inclusion of Spinks and Shaun O’Leary (who is Auckland-based) the strength of the Olympic judo team has been increased from one to three. Of the trio, only Spinks is still in New Zealand. O’Leary is at present training in Japan, while the sole original selection, Bill Vincent, recently moved from Japan to train with the very strong French national squad.