MR J. G. MACKIE AND AMATEUR CYCLING.

Star (Christchurch), Issue 17699, 20 November 1925, Page 7

MR J. G. MACKIE AND AMATEUR CYCLING.

To the Editor. Sir,—M3- attention has been drawn to Mr J. G. Mackie’s letter in 3‘our issue \of November 19 with its blunt challenge to my centre tf> substantiate the statement that “ no amateur can participate at Olympic Games who is a member of a professional bod}*.” But. Sir, such a statement never was and never could be made. My centre does not profess to control the Olympic Games Committee. What was said, and is now repeated, was that riders who competed under the local professional body, the Athletic and Cycling Union, could.not compete at the provincial or Zealand championships or represent New Zealand at the Australasian championships or Olympic Games. As the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association controls the selection of the teams for both these international contests and no competitors are recognised who are not members of their official national tedms it appears to me that this is no idle statement. No doubt if one of Mr Mackie's “amateurs” could acquire French nationality and induce the U.V.F. to include hjm in the French team he might be accepted by the Olympic Games Committee; but 1 suggest that that is rather a remote possibility. I would point out further that even the U.V.F. is not a very good example for Mr Mackie’s case, as it is a mixed amateur and professional body, not a purely professional one, as is- the A. and C.U. And this brings me, Sir, to the real crux of the matter, which, whether advisedly or not, is not touched on in Mr Mackie’s letter. The facts are that for three years the New Zealand Amateur Athletic Association has been actively reviving the. defunct sport of amateur cycling; that eighteen months ago the professional controlling body, the A. and C.U., was notified by letter of the association’s intention of exercising control; that the professional body by its absolute silence (the letter was not even acknowledged!) acquiesced; that the sport has progressed by leaps and bounds under the association’s control; and that the local branch only of that professional body, without consulting its parent body, now presumes by altering its rules to claim control over what it calls a purely amateur club. Will Mr Mackie inform you under whftt code of rules or sportsmanship such proceedings can be justified? Of the purity of the local professionals as compared with that of the amateurs under our jurisdiction, having regard to such recent events as the Timaru-Christchurch and AshburtonChristchurch road championships respectively, I leave it to your readers to decide, and I suggest that Mr Mackie’s remarks as to the practices of amateurs abroad under just such jurisdiction as he advocates locally hardly assist his case/—I am, etc., G. S. LOCKWOOD, Hon, Sec , Canterbury Centre, N,Z.A\A,A>