Commonwealth Games team leader looks to day when N.Z. holds Olympics

Press, 20 September 1985, Page 18

Commonwealth Games team leader looks to day when N.Z. holds Olympics

By

ROD DEW

A team of about 200 competitors and officials — the largest to leave New Zealand — is expected to be named for the 1986 Edinburgh Commonwealth games, which will open in the Meadowbank Stadium on July 24. The demands on the team manager will be enormous, but Bruce Ullrich, the 46-year-old Christchurch company director and business consultant who will fill this vital role, is determined that he will be more than equal to the task. “I am looking forward to it,” he says. “Naturally, I feel honoured to be chosen as manager, but what really delighted me was that the decision was unanimous.” Mr Ullrich managed the New Zealand team which contested the last Commonwealth games at Brisbane in 1982. He is the first person to be chosen as manager for successive Commonwealth Games. No-one will be surprised at this. He earned great praise from competitors and officials for his restrained and efficient performance at Brisbane. On that, occasion, the New Zealand team numbered 160 and was then the largest to have ventured overseas. The New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association had taken a calculated risk in appointing Mr Ullrich because he had never before acted as a team manager or assistant manager at any level. Its faith in his ablity was upheld, and he was widely expected to manage the New Zealand team for the Los Angeles Olympics two years later. Instead, he was passed over in favour of his long-standing friend, Sir Ronald Scott. Now the boot is on the other foot and Mr Ullrich is once more turning his full attention to the preparation for a Commonwealth Games. He does, nevertheless, harbour some desire to manage one Olympic team, and will decide whether to allow his name to go forward for the 1988 Seoul Olympics after he has completed his assignment in Edinburgh. “I would never consider that I had a divine right to be manager. If I do a reasonable job at Edinburgh and am lucky enough to be selected for Seoul, after that it will be time for someone else to have a turn.”

His interest in the Olympics goes far beyond this, however. “I would like to see them come to New Zealand. We are quite capable of' running them, and don’t need to be frightened.” Mr Ullrich is not talking off the top of his head. He was secretary of Commonwealth Games Promotion, the organisation which gained the 1974 Games for Christchurch, from 1969 to 1974, and was vice-chairman of the Games Organising Committee. He has attended in an official capacity every Commonwealth games since 1970, has been a member of the council of the New Zealand Olympic and Commonwealth Games Association since 1976, and an executive member since 1977. He was also at the 1972 Olympics. His experience of major international Games is equalled by few. The Olympics are a step up from the Commonwealth Games, although the same principles apply. Mr Ullrich believes that a twin-city approach would be highly successful. If his voice is at present little more than a cry in the wilderness, he retains the hope that this will eventually change. “Auckland will have good facili-

ties after the 1990 Commonwealth Games, we already have very good facilities in Christchurch. The whole country gets behind Telethon. I am sure the same thing would happen with the Olympics,” he says. In the meantime, he intends to “let the climate develop.” He believes that the early 1990 s might be the time to start looking seriously at holding the Olympics. “We would need to start planning 10 years in advance.” Well-groomed and an excellent speaker, Mr Ullrich has an ability to work well with people from widely varied backgrounds. He has an almost boyish enthusiasm for the challenges confronting him, and for sport in general. A relaxed manner does not quite hide a decisive side to his nature, a characteristic which could provide a winning edge in the sometimes confused atmosphere of a major international festival.

One of the keys to Mr Ullrich’s success at Brisbane was his meticulous approach, his attention to detail, and his determination to leave nothing to chance. For Brisbane, he had just six months to prepare from the time of his appointment. This time he has a year, the result of a recommendation he made to the Games association after his Brisbane experience. The early ground work is as important as - the actual managerial duties during the Games.

“It takes a lot of my time, but I take it in my stride,” he says. “I don’t find it onerous. In fact, I enjoy it.”

Fortunately, he has a staunch supporter in his wife, Jeanette, while his three children, Jane, aged 18, Matthew aged 13, and Michael, aged 10, all have a keen interest in sport.

Mr Ullrich began his personal count-down to Edinburgh with the preparation of a “critical path plan,” which lists a time for everything which must be done up to the games and even beyond. He has asked all games sports to let him know when they hold their national championships so he can see them in action and meet as many potential team members as possible. This, he considers, is important for team relations and morale. A meeting of all team officials has been arranged for next April in Wellington, to discuss their needs and get to know one another. In the second week of May he plans to make a preliminary visit to Edinburgh to “defuse any potential problems.” He has vivid memories of the howls of outrage with which the Scots greeted their accommodation at Brisbane. Something which could have easily been avoided through a visit by an official before the Games. Inevitably, Mr Ullrich will be involved in the finances of the team. About $1.5 million needs to be found. The increase in the size of the team comes about largely through the replacement of archery with rowing. Rowing will have a section of about 30, compared to the tiny archery representation at Brisbane. There will be mixed feelings at the loss of archery because it deprives the talented paraplegic archer, Neroli Fairhall, of a chance to defend the title she won at Brisbane. The other side of the coin is that in spite of the disappointing results achieved by New Zealand at the recent world rowing championships, the sport must be rated as a potential source of several medals at Commonwealth level. New Zealand’s Olympic canoeing gold medallists will be unable to boost the medal tally in Scotland because the sport has been given demonstration status only. This has disappointed Mr Ullrich. “I thought canoeing had a very good case for inclusion,” he says. This would not have been at the

expense of any other sport. There was provision in the rules for canoeing to be included as part of rowing, but this had been ruled out because of accommodation problems. “I know the organisers were very concerned about accommodation, but I have always found that estimates are always higher than the numbers who actually turn up.” Other key officials of the New Zealand party have been appointed. The assistant general team manager will be a well-known Auckland athletics offical, Graeme McCabe, and the women’s manager will be Barbara Levido, secretary of the New Zealand Cycling Association. There will be at least one more important appointment, a new post of administrative assistant. In Australia, Mr Ullrich had to rely on people supplied by the Games organisation for office assistance. These were not always available at the awkward times managers do much of their work and his recommendation that an administrative assistant be appointed for Edinburgh has been accepted.