Sports give views on selection process

By DAVID LEGGAT

National sports bodies have been canvassed for their views on how to improve the selection process for Olympic and Commonwealth Games teams.

But the New Zealand Olympic Committee insists the forum at its annual general assembly was no reaction to the resignation of long-serving Olympic selector Bruce Cameron.

He resigned last month unhappy at the NZOC's decision to approve the Tall Ferns' trip to the Athens Games despite questions over whether the women's basketball team are good enough and with no recent results on which to rate them.

NZOC secretary-general Barry Maister said he initiated the forum as part of an exercise to look at aspects of the association's operations.

Inevitably, there was a wide range of views.

"Some liked what we are doing and said we should stick with that, and that it was a way of maintaining standards.

"Others took a different view," Maister, a gold medal-winning hockey Olympian from 1976, said.

He was emphatic there was no hidden agenda in the sports being asked their views other than "it's timely to have a look at how we do things. After every Games we certainly have a review, so that in itself is not unusual".

Maister is one of the two remaining Olympic selectors, with former Olympic rower and Rowing NZ chief executive Mike Stanley.

"The NZOC has always regarded itself as guardian of the standard and by and large that's what most sports people wanted. Certainly our Olympians want us to ensure you don't just give out Olympic opportunities.

"There are others who think we make it too hard and that by raising standards over and above International Olympic Committee standards [as the NZOC has done in some athletic events for Athens] we get into arguments and contentious ground."

Maister is collating the information before reporting to the NZOC next month.

One school of thought is that sports bodies should set Games criteria in conjunction with the NZOC and that having an independent selection panel is outdated.

The argument goes that if an athlete betters the standards required they should go, rather than be subject to a further assessment. But Maister believes there will always be a need for some form of checks-and-balances group to make sure standards are appropriate.

"There will still be a need for selectors as long as you've got criteria to set. A small group of people will have to get to grips with it, to know it and to understand it."

He is against the full NZOC being involved in selections for Games teams, except in special cases like the Tall Ferns, which went to the NZOC after the selectors failed to find unanimity on their case for Athens.