McCully to hold talks on Valerie Adams
Says New Zealand athletics slow to adapt to professionalism.
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Hawke’s Bay
Sports Minister Murray McCully is to meet Valerie Adams’ agent this week to review how she was nearly disqualified from the London Olympics because of a clerical error.
Mr McCully told TV3’s The Nation programme at the weekend that last week he had a private meeting with Miss Adams in London.
“Her manager Nick Cowan has asked me for a more formal meeting back in New Zealand, which will probably happen next week with officials,” Mr McCully said.
“This is a an NZOC issue, it's their territory but we're a significant stakeholder, we're significant funders of high performance sport, and so I want to see us all put our heads together and make sure that all the lessons are learnt. It should never have happened.”
Mr McCully said the way Miss Adams found her name was not on the entry list for the shot put (by finding it missing on a website) was “part of the problem”.
“She's a tough lady. She deals with these things as well as anyone can, but who knows what the impact was? I don’t think it's even useful to speculate.
“It just should never have happened.”
Mr McCully was also critical of athletics in New Zealand in the way it had adapted to professionalism in sport.
“I think it's fair to say that some codes are better than others at dealing with modern dynamics, and athletics is probably one that has not made the transition as well as some other sports,” he said.
Watch the full interview with Mr McCully here.
NBR staff
Mon, 13 Aug 2012
Mon, 13 Aug 2012
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McCully to hold talks on Valerie Adams
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