Bids to laud Olympian stifled
BILL MOORE
REMEMBERING HAROLD: Mourners at Olympian Harold Nelson’s funeral.Relevant offers
Recognition for Nelson athletics legend Harold Nelson by naming the region’s new track after him while he was still alive was stymied by council staff, mourners at Mr Nelson’s funeral were told yesterday.
Saxton Field Pavilion Charitable Trust chairman Vern Mardon said the trust had tried for the past two years, while Mr Nelson’s health declined, to have the new track at Saxton Field named after him, but had “struck a lot of problems with council officials”.
Mr Nelson, who captained the New Zealand team to the 1948 Olympics and was the country’s oldest surviving Olympian, died a week ago, aged 88. He won gold and silver on the track at the 1950 Empire Games (later renamed the Commonwealth Games) and after settling in Nelson in 1951, coached and encouraged runners at all levels for nearly six decades.
He received an MBE in 1986 for services to sport and in 2006 was the first to be inducted into the Nelson Legends of Sport Gallery. In 2009 he fired the gun for the ceremonial first lap of the new track at Saxton Field, which has replaced Trafalgar Park as the home of athletics in the region.
The lobbyists had been told there was a due process that had to be followed, Mr Mardon said, and then two months ago had been informed that the track couldn’t be given Mr Nelson’s name before he died.
“They said `We can’t consider it at this stage, we don’t think it’s appropriate to name a facility after someone who is still alive in case they blot their copybook’.”
Given Mr Nelson’s age and failing health, this was a joke, Mr Mardon said.
However, the trust wasn’t about to give up.
“We’re still working on the naming of that track to be the only thing it can be, the Harold Nelson Track,” he said.
Speaking after the funeral, Mr Nelson’s elder daughter Gay Bull said the family would be extremely proud if the track was given his name.
“Dad did so much for Nelson athletics and it was his pride and joy, going along to athletics every Wednesday night, and particularly seeing young people develop.”
The council’s position was “sad”, she said.
– The Nelson Mail
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