Twelve golds target of Games team

Press, 24 July 1986, Page 35

Twelve golds target of Games team

The opening ceremony of the thirteenth Commonwealth Games at the Meadowbank Stadium in Edinburgh in the early hours of tomorrow morning (New Zealand time) will signal the start of 10 days of fervent endeavour by more than 2000 competitors from nearly 30 countries.

The Commonwealth games, which competitors agree are more enjoyable than the Impersonal Olympic Games- — even though they have to endure the same fruitless, politically motivated boycotts — have produced many warm memories in the past. The next week and a half will no doubt produce many more for New Zealanders to savour in years to come.

There will be the hard luck stories too, but they will take second place to the competitors who are fortunate enough to stand on the raised, centre section of the victory dais.

Mr Bruce Ullrich, the ' over-all team manager, said before he left New Zealand two weeks ago that the New Zealand contingent could win 12 gold medals, two more than the 10 medals secured at Perth in 1962, and Auckland in 1950.

The disappointing withdrawal of many nations since Mr Ullrich’s prediction might lead to a revision of his estimate. Certainly the chances of some New Zealand track and field competitors and boxers will have been en-

By

KEVIN TUTTY

hanced by the African boycott.

The New Zealand team is the largest to leave this country for either a Commonwealth or Olympic Games. In total — including officials and competitors — it numbers 190. Of that number, 120 are competitors. Over the next 10 days the litres of perspiration that have been left on roads, in rowing shells, on boxing canvas and at other training venues, will all seem worth while to the athletes. For some it will be more worth while than others, because they will be the lucky ones who return home with a gold, silver or bronze medal as their prized possession. Those fortunate enough to secure one of those medals will be able to

take total satisfaction from their effort because no medal will be easily won in Edinburgh. Australian, Canadian and British athletes these days are virtual professionals. They receive substantial funding and are able to concentrate solely on training. New Zealand’s top athletes are able to remain in step with their counterparts because they are assisted by the New Zealand Sports Foundation, which does a remakable job spreading a pittance around a large number of deserving athletes. At Olympic and world championship level in the last 15 years, New Zealand rowing has had many successes. When it was announced that the sport was being reintroduced to the Commonwealth

Games in Edinburgh after an absence of 24 years, it was automatically expected this would be New Zealand’s most successful sport of the 10 at the Commonwealth Games. New Zealand has nine crews entered and the expectation is that each will win a medal, although that cannot be taken for granted. In the last four years British, Canadian and Australian crews have all improved markedly. There will be no easy rows for the New Zealand contingent.

The track and field and cycling venues should produce several medals between them, and swimming should do better than the one bronze it won in Brisbane in 1982, and that because the first two teams in the women’s freestyle relay were disqualified.

Mr Ullrich has tried to engender an over—all team spirit, with the stronger sports supporting the weaker ones, because his aim is to ensure that all 10 sports win at least one medal. That goal is well within the bounds of possibility.

Medals are the carrots which force competitors into a restricted and regimented lifestyle year after year in the pursuit of sporting excellence. But the large percentage of competitors will not come anywhere near a medal, so the fellowship of the Games will be important to them. The boycott has taken some of the gloss from the Games, but they should be held in a more friendly atmosphere than the last two festivals, in Edmonton

(1978) and Brisbane (1982).

At both those Games the nationalism of the two host countries was excessive. The battle by the host to win more gold medals than any of the other countries became paramount, and the spirit of the Games that had been present in Christchurch in 1974 and Edinburgh in 1970 was absent

The return to Edinburgh, where the host country cannot expect to foot it with the Canadians, Australians or the English, should ensure a return to a friendly enjoyable atmosphere, even if tinged with a little regret that .many athletes have been prevented from taking their rightful place alongside competitors from the other Commonwealth nations.