Ballot for rowing panel

Press, 2 November 1984, Page 44

Ballot for rowing panel

By

TIM DUNBAR

South Island rowers will have a more than passing interest in the makeup of the new national selection panel which will be elected at the annual meeting of the New Zealand Amateur Rowing Association in Wellington over the next two days.

For the first time in nearly a decade the South Island has two candidates for the three-man panel, Fred Strachan (Otago), a national selector of 21 years standing who is up for reelection, and the former international oarsman, Ivan Sutherland (Marlborough), who has not stood previously. Whether justified, one or two South Island rowers feel they might have been

hard done by in the past and hopes will be high that both southern candidates are successful.

Competition will be tough, however. One selector of long standing, Peter Baddeley (Waikato), does not have to come up for re-election, and there were four nominations for the two vacancies.

While Mr Strachan, the convener of selectors for the last 19 years, should be assured of election, Mr Sutherland, an eights bronze medallist at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, will be up against one especially powerful candidate in Tom Reid (Whakatane), a very experienced international coach. The other candidate

is Peter Delaney (Wellington), who has also rowed for New Zealand with some success.

The South Island last had two selectors on the panel in the decade between 1967 and 1976 when Mr Strachan, Rusty Robertson (Oamaru), and Don Rowlands (Auckland) were the “big three" of New Zealand rowing. As well as standing as a selector Mr Strachan, already a vice-president of the NJSAHA., is also up for the office of president this year. The other nomination is that of Mr Stan Adamson, the incumbent president, and also from the deep south. He comes from the Waihopai club in Invercargill.

The Canterbury association is putting up two remits at the annual meeting, proposing that lightweight women’s open coxless fours and premier men’s lightweight coxless pairs events be included in championship regatta programmes. Otago is proposing that national selectors be granted “reasonable” travelling expenses in the course of their duties. The format for New Zealand rowing over the next four years is also likely to be thrashed out at the meeting. Thinking last year was that no eight be sent to the 1985 world championships in Belgium, with concentration instead on scullers and small boats.