NEW ZEALAND’S PROSPECTS AT OLYMPIC GAMES

Northland Age, Volume 5, Issue 18, 31 January 1936, Page 2

NEW ZEALAND’S PROSPECTS AT OLYMPIC GAMES

Will New Zealand ever produce an Olympic track or field chamipon? The disadvantages under which athletes from this country labour make the possibility very remote. Quite apart from changes in climate, food, and tracks, the greatest obstacle to be overcome is the lack of competition, due to the fact that the Olympic Games are held during our winter months.

It is not suggested that the Dominion has not had, or will not produce, men potentially capable of beating the world, but even a super athlete could not overcome the difficulties which beset New Zealand representatives. Competition is the indispensible factor in the production of an athlete’s finest form.

Our men, too, suffer perhaps because of the lack of efficient coaching though this point is trifling when compared with the barriers pointed out above. Certainly coaching alone will never produce an Olympic champion. Best Performances The best performances made by New Zealanders at the Games from the point of view of placings were A. E. Porritt’s third in the 100 metres in Pairs in 1924; H. E. Wilson’s fourth in the 110 metres hurdles at Antwerp in 1920 ; J. W. Savidan’s fourth in the 5000 and 10,000 metres at Los Angeles in 1932 ; and G. Davidson’s fifth in the 200 metres in 1920. Of these performances those of Wilson and Davidson were probably the most meritorious. They were faced with obstacles which did not present themselves at all to Porritt, and in a lesser degree to Savidan. After an eight weeks’ boat journey they were left with but ten days before the opening of the Games. Their performances under these circumstances were magnificent. Porritt’s feat in running third in the 100 metres in 1924 was a brilliant one, but as a Rhodes scholar in residence at Oxford for a year he enjoyed obvious advantages. Savidan was less favoured, but his disadvantages were not as severe as those encountered by Wilson and Davidson, since he was only three weeks at sea, and had a month at Los Angeles. This latter factor was considered of doubtful benefit in some quarters, but Savidan’s performances disproved any contention that he suffered thereby. The achievements indicated above illustrate the potential calibre of New

Zealand athletes, and are at the same time indicative of the disadvantages from which most representatives of countries in the Southern Hemisphere suffer. If New Zealand does not produce an Olympic winner in the future (here J. E. Lovelock must be excluded since he is essentially a product of Oxford University) it will in all probability be in the distance running sphere. In the case of a distance man competition does not appear so vitally necessary some is essential, of course, for the production of his best form —as with a sprinter, and for this reason, together with the fact that our finest distance runners have more closely approximated world standard than our sprinters an Olympic champion from the ranks of our distance men is more feasible.

Highly Mechanised

Sprinting is a highly mechanised form of activity, and it permits of no error. The athlete must be perfectly tuned up, absolutely on the qui vive, if he hopes to succeed in the highest company a condition quite impossible for any representative sent direct from this country to achieve unless he is permitted two or three months near the source of competition. A distance runner does not require the same degree of co-ordina-tion. His training is not so refined, so meticulous—a factor which gives him an immediate advantage over the sprinter. There may appear an apparent contradiction to this statement in the fact that sprinters visiting New Zealand have invariably shown better form than distance men, at least in the initial stages of a tour, but this has been very largely due to the fact that a distance runner requires a few weeks of gradual reconditioning, particularly when he changes his hemisphere, to give him the ground work upon which to build. This, in a tour of New Zealand, he has never been able to secure, since, after the first ten days of comparative peace, he has always been continually travelling, with but not more than two or three days in any one place. As a consequence, the result has been that he has usually not shown anything like his best form until the closing days of his visifr But give him a reasonable period before asking him to travel or compete, and there would probably be little the matter with his form.

If New Zealand is represented at Berlin next August other than by Lovelock the difficulties, which have presented themselves in the past, may not weigh so heavily, since it is now apparent that in the future a much longer period in which to prepare will be given our representatives. However, success in any track and field sphere is highly improbable under tany system other than one which would permit of a complete season being spent in the Northern Hemisphere.