Swimmers Will Find It Harder To Qualify

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31080, 8 June 1966, Page 18

Swimmers Will Find It Harder To Qualify

The qualification times for the 1966-67 season were approved at a meeting of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association council in Christchurch last evening.

Most of the qualifying times for the national championships have been tightened, but some have been relaxed.

“I don’t think tightening the qualifying times too much will achieve anything,” said Mr A. G. Donaldson, the chairman of the council. “However, I noticed at Napier that many swimmers got nowhere near the times with which they qualified. It looks as if some of the secretaries have cheated.” Being Wasted

He said that the basic purpose of the qualifying times was to ascertain which swimmers compete at the national championships. They were wasted if association secretaries did not follow them implicitly. "I am not in the least surprised that some swimmers did not do up to their qualifying times at the nationals,” said Mr D. Cain.

It was only to be expected that some competitors would not reproduce or improve upon their best-ever times. "I don’t think it means the association secretaries have cheated—in fact lam sure it doesn’t. This is just something which happens, and is quite natural.’’ The qualifying times will be distributed on August 31. Age Groups.—A plan for the promotion of age-group Swimming will be produced by the championships committee. It

was also decided to produce a questionnaire on which associations could state their own ideas on the subject. Cancelled.—The swimming team to participate in the Empire Games at Jamaica is unlikely to compete elsewhere after the completion of the Games. An invitation had been received for the team to compete at Vancouver, but a team will not be sent. A letter was received from the New Zealand Olympic and British Empire Games Association outlining what such a tour would mean to

i New Zealand swimming. If the tour were pursued, the N.Z.A.S.A. would be responsible for all travel costs for the team as the tour would have to be made outride the group travel scheme. Mr

Donaldson said the tour would cost the N.Z-A.S.A. about £2OOO.

Junior Tour.—A proposal by the tours committee that a junior team go to the New South Wales country districts, and thence to the Australian Swimming Union junior championships next February was approved in principle.