2024-01-20 00:59:14
In the 1960s, overseas champions were excluded from the European Athletics Cup. A regulation from the International Federation prohibited the participation of athletes from overseas.
Five years later “the year of independence“, and a few months after the re-election of General de Gaulle, the International Athletics Federation under the presidency of David George Brownlow Cecil Marquis of Exeter, adopts a regulation prohibiting the participation of overseas athletes in the European Athletics Cup
In 1965, West Indian and Futunian athletes, Bambuck, holder of the French 100 meter record, Sainte-Rose, French high jump champion and Wakalina, French javelin champion in 1966, were not selected to participate in the European Athletics Cup. The Guadeloupean, the Martinican and the Futunian are sidelined from continental competition. These three French athletes live overseas.
Regulation prohibiting overseas athletes from the European Cup. Roger Bambuck first race and first interview • ©Outre-Mer la1ere
The regulations of the International Athletics Federation required 5 years of residence in Europe to be able to take part in races and competitions. Article 7 of the regulations for the European Championships specifies about the competitors: they must be born subjects of the country they represent or be citizens of the country they represent and have lived there continuously for at least five years.
Roger Bambuck, aged 20, largely dominates the French sprint. The Guadeloupean achieves the 100m – 200m double during the French championships. The sprinter equals Abdoulaye Seye’s national record of 10 seconds 2 in the 100m established in 1959. For four seasons, he won national titles over key distances.
Robert Sainte-Rose was crowned French champion for five consecutive years from 1964 to 1968. During this period, the native of Fort-de-France participated twice in the Olympic Games.
Performance of Robert Sainte Rose at the French championships • ©Outre-mer la 1ère
Petelo Wakalina won two French javelin throwing championship titles in 1966 and 1968. The Futunian was crowned military world champion in 1966 with a throw of 80.16 meters. During training, he achieved a world record which was not approved.
In the semi-final of the European Cup in Oslo, on August 22, 1965, Sainte-Rose, Bambuck and Wakalina were not called upon by the leaders of the French federation. A month later, in the final, the FFA attempted a coup. It communicates the composition of the French team which will participate in the first European Cup. Saint-Rose is on the list, Bambuck is a reserve. But with the regulations of the International Federation, a legal problem arises in relation to Robert Saint-Rose.
At the time, a few journalists publicly denounced this situation. The late Robert Parienté of the daily l’Équipe deplores the international regulations in athletics which exclude Roger Bambuck and Robert Sainte-Rose from participating in the European Cup: “It is a shame that the International Federation was not led to review a regulation which was designed with the aim of disadvantaging colonial nations such as France and Great Britain, in particular. It is now difficult to understand, and this point of view is unassailable from a legal point of view, that citizens of French origin, whose original nationality goes back several generations, can be excluded from a competition in which Turks of ‘Asia or the Soviets.’
Certainly this decree disadvantaged colonial nations such as France and Great Britain, but the main victims of this regulation from the International Athletics Federation remain overseas athletes.
1705720661
#International #Athletics #Federation #prohibits #participation #overseas #athletes #European #Cup