Selection criteria changed

Press, 19 February 1987, Page 40

Selection criteria changed

PA Wellington A move to give selectors more flexibility in choosing athletes for Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams would not lead to lower standards, says Sir Lance Cross. “It will give our selectors more scope for taking into account the degree of difficulty our athletes face in progressing in the various sports,” said Sir Lance yesterday. <. The executive the New Zealand Olympic and

Commonwealth Games Association has adopted a recommendation from its selectors to change the selection criteria for the Seoul Olympics. The principle underlying selection has been that a competitor should have the potential to reach the semi-finals, the last 16 or equivalent. The executive agreed that the new principle should be a competitor’s ability to represent New Zealand with real distinction measured by the

world standard for the preceding four years. Sir Lance said the selectors were concerned that the old criteria did not have regard for the differing number of competitors in each sport, and changing world standards. “The idea of the move was not to make it easier for our athletes to make the team — in fact in some disciplines meeting the new.standard may be harder,” Sit Lance said there had been little support for

a proposal that each of the Games sports should be .guaranteed at least one representative. He pointed out that the international parent bodies of many sports insisted on their own standards for Olympic competition. Having a token representative in each Games team would not take this requirement into consideration. “The idea just wasn’t very practical," It was reported that the

president of the International Olympic Committee, Juan Antonio Samaranch, would make a visit to Christchurch on Februaiy 26-27. Sir Lance said the visit would enable New Zealand to get first hand information on progress over the division of venues between North and South Korea for next year’s Olympics, and the proposal for temporary amateur status for the world’s top tennis players to allow them to that part in the Olympics.