Athletics: Council calls for sense to prevail
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Your support makes all the difference.In submitting a bid for pounds 5.5m of National Lottery money this week, British athletics has been called upon to get its house in order by the body which will consider that application.
Howard Wells, chief executive of the United Kingdom Sports Council - which is evaluating bids from all sports for newly available money under the world-class performance programme - has called for sense to prevail in the debate over the future of the British Athletic Federation.
"I do not think that anyone would suggest that the current administrative arrangements within athletics best serve the interests of the sport," Wells said. "Recent developments have afforded us the opportunity to look at the situation afresh and examine options that are robust and flexible enough to support and develop British athletics up to and beyond the millennium."
The Council said it would "need to be confident that effective management systems [in the BAF] are in place before making any decision on the allocation of funding for the 1997-98 financial year."
It has offered to play a role as "broker" in restructuring the BAF, from which the executive chairman, Peter Radford, resigned recently, citing the lack of freedom afforded him by factions in the sport.
Roger Eady will represent the Council in meetings to be held this week with key BAF individuals. Eady stressed, however, that the "current difficulties" would not harm the prospects of individual athletes, whose direct funding would be protected.
In the meantime, a petition protesting against the imminent closure of athletics facilities at Crystal Palace has attracted more than 2,000 signatures and will be presented to the Sports Council - which is currently deliberating over the usage of the south London site - next week.
n Carl Lewis finished equal seventh in the 100 metres at the Sydney Grand Prix yesterday, his second disappointing performance in 72 hours.
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