KEY POINTS:
Olympic officials last night were making no apologies for their tough selection stance but admitted they would review procedures to make sure athletes had been treated fairly.
NZ Olympic Committee secretary-general Barry Maister said while there had been criticism of the criteria in light of the case of
marathon runner Liza Hunter-Galvan - who forced her way into the team yesterday after an appeal to the Sports Tribunal - he would not resile from the stance which demanded high standards.
"At the same time we like to see that athletes are treated fairly and appropriately, that's part of our role," he said.
"Like every Games we have to review what we've learnt from it. It probably means we're going to have to be a bit tighter in our selection criteria which we set 18 months out from the Games."
Hunter-Galvan was yesterday named in the team for Beijing after a legal battle which highlighted the debate over whether the Olympics should be about participation or the pursuit of medals.
She was initially left out because of what athletics selectors believed were poor performances at previous championships, including her 51st placing at the Athens Olympics.
The Athletics NZ selection panel had said it would only pick athletes capable of making the top-16 and would take previous performances into account. Neither would they be bound by qualifying standards. Two runners, Hunter-Galvan and fellow marathon runner Michael Aish, were omitted despite posting A times.
Maister said when the qualifying times were set in conjunction with Athletics NZ they were designed to reflect top-16 standards.
"Athletics NZ in a sense went a step further and tried to do what we have been urging other sports to do and that is to raise the bar. They said they wanted consistent results and we supported them in that. It's always complex because it gets you into the discretionary area."
After Hunter-Galvan won her appeal, the Athletics NZ selectors reviewed her case and reversed their decision yesterday. They put her name forward to the NZOC which approved her nomination.
Athletics NZ chief executive Scott Newman said the selectors had looked more closely at her performances in Athens, at the 2005 world championships (39th) and the Melbourne Commonwealth Games (DNF).
"Information came to hand that we were not aware of and that was enough to enable the selectors to feel confident in nominating her," said Newman. The information related to the reasons behind her performances.
The decision would not open the door for Aish because he had not lodged an appeal within the required timeframe, said Newman.
"At this point it won't be reconsidered. If he appealed we'd have to look at it but certainly all the information we have so far - and certainly the message I've sent to Michael - is that he's out of time."
Aish, who earlier said he was disillusioned and would not appeal, said last night he was reconsidering. "The findings that the tribunal found applied to me as well," he told Radio Sport. "There were different areas [the selectors] hadn't addressed and needed to be addressed."
Newman maintained the tribunal's ruling applied to Hunter-Galvan alone.
Hunter-Galvan said she would not bear grudges against Athletics NZ or the selectors who include John Bowden, the team coach for Beijing.
"I'm not a negative person and I'm not mean-spirited," she said. "I'm a little bit saddened because I would like to know what is happening with Michael Aish and it kind of breaks my heart that he is in the same boat."
She would use the experience as a motivation, drawing inspiration from the people who supported her case - a line-up including Olympic legends Peter Snell and Lorraine Moller.
"I'm in the form of my life and I'm going to go for it," she said. Hunter-Galvan set a half-marathon personal best last week, running 1hr 13m 29s to beat an international field in the US.
