Athletics: Striving for gold on a shoestring budget

By TERRY MADDAFORD

How far can $3000 be stretched? Not far for an Olympic track and field athlete aiming to compete out of season at Sydney 2000.

Qualifying for the Olympic Games is one thing. Being in peak condition and ready for the performance of your life is another.

As members of the New Zealand Sports Foundation high performance unit, former world discus champion Beatrice Faumuina and 50km road walker Craig Barrett deservedly qualify for virtually unlimited resources and funding.

But for Toni Hodgkinson (800m/1500m), Chris Donaldson (100m/200m) and Glenn Howard (high jump) - the only other New Zealand athletes to reach the tough Olympic standards - there is no money in the pot.

They must get by with a $3000 grant and then start dipping into their own pockets.

The trio have pre-Games training and competition planned for Europe, the United States, Australia and elsewhere but it will at best be a shoestring campaign.

Athletics New Zealand high-performance manager Steve Hollings has called the situation "atrocious." He also questioned the lack of funding for medical cover, physio- therapy, massage and transport costs in the vital build-up period before and after the August 17-19 Australian trials at Stadium Australia.

"It is mandatory for all our athletes - apart from Craig Barrett - to compete as their Olympic fitness test," said Hollings. "But there is no funding.

"They and other hopefuls like Zion Armstrong [400m hurdles], Jane Arnott [400m], Robbie Johnston [10,000m], Chantal Brunner [long jump] and Tasha Williams [hammer] must pay their own way."

And Hollings is caught up in this funding debate as well. He must pay his own way if he accompanies any athlete to pre-Games competition.

"Volunteer" coaches qualify for the $3000 grant but only if they are named as an official Olympic coach.

"And that will not happen unless another four athletes qualify for Sydney," said Hollings. "As it stands, athletics will have just Ken Simpson, as section manager, and myself, as performance manager, in Sydney. In Atlanta we had 18 athletes and three coaches."

The sport's funding problems have had repercussions away from the track, too.

Athletics New Zealand general manager Matt Wynne has resigned - "frustrated by a lot of things."

In turning his back on a position he has held since October 1992, Wynne said: "We can see opportunities within our sport but we can't do anything."

The association has a budget of $1.4 million, with one-third coming from members, a third from sponsors and the rest from the Hillary Commission/Sports Foundation.

"We get bagged from every direction. The grassroot members complain the money we have goes to the high performance programme, while the elite complain there is not enough funding for them."

Of the coaching issue, Wynne said athletics was unique in that there were so many disciplines within the sport, unlike a team who happily get by with one coach and one manager.

"You can't expect one coach to do the job with sprinters, walkers, throwers and jumpers. All require their own expertise.

"Unfortunately, we are unlikely to have even one coach in Sydney. That is far from ideal but something we have to live with."