Athletics: Revolt over Athletics NZ selection policy

Leading athletes and coaches are in revolt against Athletics New Zealand over "draconian" selection policies for the world championships in Canada.

"I don't see why Athletics NZ has to be so negative," Canterbury coach Andrew Maclennan said yesterday. "I am frustrated by it."

High profile coaches, Auckland's Les Mills and Dunedin's Brent Ward, are also in the vanguard of a move to change selection policies they consider are partly to blame for New Zealand's alarming decline on the world stage.

But ANZ chairwoman Joanna Hickman was quick to pour water on the controversy.

ANZ was in total support of the athletes and everything would be done to ensure that athletes deserving a place at the world championships in Edmonton this year were selected, she said.

"We don't believe the policy needs to be changed, but perhaps we need to clarify what the policy really means. We have to be confident that the people we send are a credit to themselves and to the country."

The belief that the A and B standards set by the world governing body, the IAAF, should be sufficient is widespread in the sport.

Each country is entitled to enter one athlete per event who has reached the B standard, and three per event if they have reached the A standard.

But under the ANZ policy, even athletes achieving the A standard are not guaranteed selection.

The wording was, perhaps, harsher than intended, Hickman said.

She also dispelled the widespread belief that all members of the world championship team would have to pay their own way because of the sport's poor financial situation.

Maclennan, who coaches sprint prospects Caro Hunt and Rebecca Wardell, still wants "a more positive message from the top."

"If an athlete achieves the B standard that person should be able to pay their own way and go. Surely the IAAF knows what standard it needs," Maclennan said.

Mills, who launched the campaign for change with a widely distributed e-mail message, condemned a policy which describes the IAAF standards as "target guidelines" and gives selectors the right to exclude even bona fide A qualifiers.

Ward, coach of sprinter Chris Donaldson, said he was right behind Mills.

- NZPA