OLYMPIC ASPIRATIONS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 26545, 21 August 1947, Page 2

OLYMPIC ASPIRATIONS

WELLS’S CLAIMS PREMATURE The claims being made by his trainer that the New Zealand cross-country champion, W. J. Wells (West Coast, North Island), should be included in the team for the Olympic Games because of his success against the former champion, W. H. Nelson (Otago) are somewhat premature. While it is admitted that Wells, beautifully trained for the event, was Nelson’s master in the recent National Cross-country . Championship, it must be remembered that in the preceding 12 months the Otago champion had beaten the northern athlete very comfortably in two long-distance title events. Before the Olympic team is finally chosen there are certain to be further tests, in which Wells and Nelson may meet, and the Otago man will not be wanting in supporters who expect him to regain the prestige which he lost in Auckland. Wells’s status as a reinstated professional will also count against his prospects of selection. The New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association was successful some years ago in making arrangements for a reinstated athlete, C. V. (Don) Evans, to represent his country at an Olympic festival, but efforts made to secure the inclusion of two very fine Otago athletes, M. R. Spillane and A. A. Cameron, in an Empire Games team failed because they had been reinstated, and similar difficulties may prevent Wells, if he is able to beat Nelson when the two race again, from going to the London games next year.