Discus: Winchester angered by reaction to record throw

By SUZANNE MCFADDEN

Angry discus thrower Ian Winchester will channel his fury into one more record-breaking attempt to cement his place in the Olympics.

It should have been a happy trip home to Auckland after breaking the New Zealand discus record and bettering the Olympic qualifying mark at the Modesto meeting in California.

Yet back on home soil, Winchester yesterday accused Athletics New Zealand of treating him "like a piece of dirt" and not wanting him to compete in Sydney.

The ill-feeling blew up over an e-mail from athletics convener of selectors Tony Rogers, sent after Winchester's best-ever throw last weekend.

There seems to have been a misunderstanding between sender and receiver over the intent of the cyber message.

Rogers says he asked Winchester to bring back the paperwork for the 64.26m throw so the new record could be ratified.

He also reminded him that he would need one more throw over the standard of 63.5m to get to Sydney.

The athlete saw it differently.

He reckons Rogers was saying the record may not be valid and that he would need to throw even further if he wanted to make the Olympic team.

"That's not a problem - I know I will do it again," he said.

"It's just their attitude towards me. They could have said, `Well done.' It's as if they don't want any more athletes to qualify for the Games."

However, Rogers is not impressed with Winchester's interpretation.

"I never told him he would have to throw better," he said. "I don't know where he gets that from.

"I wrote and told him he had very strong candidature, but to guarantee selection he had to meet the requirements. He knew he had to better the mark twice. I wish he would have done it twice - it would have made this a lot easier."

Winchester knows he needs a second good throw before the end of August, and has a series of meetings across the Tasman in July.

"All this gives me motivation," Winchester said. "I can't let anything like this disrupt my train of thought."

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