Athletics: Why unselfish Dryburgh ruined Games dream

By DAVID LEGGAT

MANCHESTER - When Auckland pole vaulter Jenni Dryburgh pulled out of the Commonwealth Games, she was the casualty of a system designed to minimise the risk of high-profile failure.

Dryburgh, who on her best form would have been a medal contender, had qualified for the Games several months ago.

Under the criteria set up between Athletics New Zealand and the New Zealand Olympic Committee, athletes had to maintain the selection standards through to the start of the Games.

Dryburgh, a 24-year-old Auckland student, was unable to do that.

On occasions at past Games, athletics has been guilty of fielding competitors so far off the requisite form when their events began as to be embarrassing.

"Jenni had a range of events she had to compete in and maintain the standard she was selected at, and she struggled with it," New Zealand team boss Dave Currie said yesterday.

"She had three no-heights in three competitions since arriving here and Athletics New Zealand were concerned about that. There were some discussions with her and she was starting to get nervous about the ability to perform."

Currie said Dryburgh was given an extra few days to try to rediscover the form she showed in winning the Australian championships last year, during which she beat Sydney Olympic silver medallist and Games favourite Tatiana Grigorieva.

A simulated competition vault was set up for her on Tuesday and she failed again.

"She made the decision that she didn't feel in shape to perform," Currie added.

That leaves national champion Melina Hamilton and Emma Draisey, who qualified in Darwin only last month, as New Zealand's representatives in a field reduced by the high-profile doping ban on English vaulter Janine Whitlock.

And what if Dryburgh had insisted that while the marks were not coming, she felt in the groove and was confident of performing on the day?

"Then Athletics NZ and us would have sat down, chatted about it and made a decision," Currie said, the clear inference being that Dryburgh would have been packing her bags anyway.

"The criteria is clear and I think we're getting away from the confrontational situations that maybe we had in the past [of] 'we make the decision and you've got to live with it.'

"It was pretty self-evident in Jenni's case that she wasn't maintaining the standard that had been set.

"When she made the decision she was not angry with Athletics NZ or us, just disappointed things hadn't worked out for her."

Currie said a range of moves were put in train to resolve the problem, and as team psychologist Gary Hermansson was involved at one point, it is fair to deduce that the problems might have been at least partly mental as distinct from purely technical.

Currie emphasised there was no pleasure in reaching the decision, especially as Dryburgh's family were in Manchester to watch the competition.

"These things are awful. But the positive side is that she had that support here when she finally made the decision."

No other athletes were in the same boat.

"Everybody else had maintained [form], or demonstrated the ability to perform to the standard they were selected at."

Dryburgh's withdrawal does raise the question that, having proved what she is capable of achieving, who is to say she could not have reproduced that on the big day.

Sport is littered with examples of poor dress rehearsals preceding high-quality performances at precisely the moment they are needed.

This decision removes the potential for that to happen and - to use a pole vault term - raises the bar for athletes at future Games.

* Defending champion Iwan Thomas withdrew from the 400m yesterday because of a lack of form.

Thomas, 28, who will still run in the 4x400m relay for Wales, has struggled badly for form and fitness this season and looked a shadow of the athlete who once looked on the verge of challenging Michael Johnson.

Four years ago he won the Commonwealth and European championship 400m titles, but last week failed even to make the final in the British trials for this year's European event in Munich.

"Having suffered a number of injuries during my preparations for the Games, I do not feel that the high expectations I place on myself and those held by the public will be fulfilled," Thomas said. "I would rather not compete."

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