Athletes warned on drinking

Dave Currie

New Zealand's Commonwealth Games team have been given fresh warnings against drunken excesses following allegations of sexual assault that have cast a pall over the cycling squad.


The team have denied the allegations. But chef de mission Dave Currie yesterday reinforced strictures against alcoholic revelry after a security guard reported seeing an incident involving two male cyclists and a female rider returning to the Games Village after a night out in city clubs.

None of the athletes involved has been officially named, but NZPA said the male cyclists were Tim Gudsell and Marc Ryan from the bronze-medal-winning track pursuit team.

Currie said: "We have re-reminded people of the privilege it is to represent New Zealand, the responsibility that goes with it, and we have ensured that every team relooks at the strategies they have in place to ensure that the personal safety of athletes when they are out celebrating is paramount and the athletes have a strategy of looking after one another."

A source close to the team said the incident involved new shoes in a pool and a lot of squealing and, while not confirming rumours that the woman had been splashed inadvertently by urine, said: "You're very close."

Australian reporters picked up rumours of the incident at the Games Village. One said it was the talk of the village and that several people there heard it from the woman involved, although details remained obscure.

Melbourne's Herald Sun ran the story yesterday under the headline, "NZ cyclists in assault claim: woman tells of drunken attack", reporting that the woman had complained that two New Zealand cyclists tried to strip off her clothes and urinate on her. On Wednesday, Currie told the Herald Sun: "There hasn't been an incident. She has not made a complaint."

But yesterday morning he told a press conference outside the village: "I want to confirm there was an incident that happened a couple of days ago involving three members of our cycle team arriving home in the village in the early hours of the morning."

Currie said there would be no drinking within the village, but there would be no ban on parties in the city.

"You simply can't do that."

The woman involved said in a statement read by team psychologist Gary Hermansson the incident was a non-event which should never have become an issue outside the team.

She said the other athletes did not mean any harm or disrespect to her and she had no intention of making a complaint of any sort.

The police had become involved unnecessarily after being told of the incident by a security guard who had witnessed it, and she did not wish the matter to be perpetuated by the media.

Currie said the statement had not been requested by team managers and had been offered by the rider on her own initiative.

He said it confirmed that there was absolutely no truth in allegations of assault, sexual or otherwise, but refused to discuss any details of the incident or to make any comment on claims of torn clothes or urination.

The two male riders have finished their Games competition and Currie said they had left Australia to compete elsewhere on previously scheduled flights, although he would not say when they left or where they went. They now face possible disciplinary action by BikeNZ.

The woman remained in Melbourne yesterday.

Six of the 15 male cycling squad members are still competing.

Chief Victorian Police Commissioner Christine Nixon confirmed police had investigated the incident but declined to discuss details and said the woman involved did not want any further action taken.

Currie said he and other team members were disappointed by messy behaviour involving drinking before the athletes returned to the village between 4am and 5am on Sunday.

"We came here with clear guidelines for two things - to perform well and to take real pride in the fern and representing New Zealand, and the privilege of that is part of it."

Currie said team officials had compiled a comprehensive report on the incident for BikeNZ and would support any action it might take.

He said the New Zealand Olympic Committee, which governs the Commonwealth Games team, could not act against the riders as it had at the Manchester Games when it sent home disabled bowler John Davies for sexually harassing a woman volunteer. Davies was still to compete, but the Melbourne cyclists' competition was over.

BikeNZ chief executive Rodger Thompson said the report would be handed to Cycling NZ by midnight on Sunday, when the matter would become that organisation's responsibility.