Who Will Represent Dominion At 1928 Olympic Games?

Sun (Auckland), Volume I, Issue 293, 2 March 1928, Page 10

Who Will Represent Dominion At 1928 Olympic Games?

THE New Zealand Olympic Committee will soon be settling down to the thorny task of disentangling the plethora of nominations that have been coming forward in the past week or two for the Olympic Games. It is going to be no easy task.

\ A MATEUR athletics hold pride of t place at the Games, but outstandL ; ing performers are few and far between these days. Stan Lay, the Hawera * javelin thrower, has the strongest r claims, but even he will have to imt prove a bit yet to have a winning r chance against the Americans and > Scandinavians. Randolph Rose may get another trip abroad, but if he does he will go on reputation. The ex-Wairarapa farmer . has never been within cooee of the seh- „ sational time he registered at Master- } ton a couple of years ago. That was i Rose’s high tide. It takes a lot to get r a big man like Rose keyed up to con- , ! cert pitch for distance events, and if ! he goes to Amsterdam he will have to r be taken on trust. Outside these two it is difficult to see that we have anyone up to the required standard. Ranson, the young Wellington hurdler, is being vigorously boosted in Wellington, but Lander’s claims are probably just as good. Neither man, however, seems to fill the eye as a coming Olympic champion. Carlton’s decisive defeats of Leadbetter rules the Christchurch schoolmaster out, although after his 9 4-5 hundred in Auckland a year ago, Leadbetter’s chances looked bright. Boxers’ Set-back Like the Sharkey-Heeney fight, the try-out of Cleverly and O’Sullivan at Wellington went perilously close to being a double elimination. If boxers are being sent, there ought to be at least two, so that they can get sparring and training practice together, but unless funds are plentiful the chances are no boxers will go at all. As far as swimming is concerned the girls looked to have the best chance of furnishing an Olympic representative. It will be time enough to sum up the chances of Misses Stockley and Miller when they have finished their Australian trip, but on performances Miss Stockley ought to go very close to being selected as a back-stroke representative, apart from her solid quali- \ fications as a free-style sprinter. If i Miss Stockley goes, Miss Miller may go ' J with her, but the Otago girl has the * hardest part of it still to do, and if two girls are wanted to keep each other company, Miss Wilson, the Gis- ! ■ borne sprinter, may go as part of the J amateur athletic contingent. Lindsay, I the Canterbury swimmer, has done ‘ . everything asked of him here, but, 1 whether he is class enough for the I Games is another matter. i I In recent years, New Zealand oars- c men have swept the board in inter- I national competition with the pick of £ Australia. New Zealand won the eight 1 oared championship of New South ! t Wales in 1925, the Challenge Cup fours at Henley-on-Yarra in 1926 and 1927 n and even after the lapse of years, the t

Oarsmen and Swimmers Have Best Chance

brilliant performances of the New Zeai land Army eight are still fresh in mind. ! Among their record of successes were the inter-allied eights and inter-allied sculls on the Seine and the international eights at Reading, i A rowing eight would not be “a one event” team. There are at least half a dozen events —pairs, four and eights—for which memj bers of the team could enter. 1 When all is said and done, it must be confessed that there are few outstanding Hominion athletes available. It is a long way to send representatives, and the cost is so great that only those with really good chances of figuring in the placed list should be sent.