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Kane Radford v Swimming New Zealand Inc

Overview:

Appeal against non-selection for world championships and non-nomination for Olympics – swimmer appealed not being selected for open water world championships event – needed to compete in that event in order to have a chance to qualify for Olympics – jurisdiction – interpretation – rule in Swimming NZ (SNZ) constitution only gave jurisdiction to Tribunal to hear an appeal against non-nomination to NZ Olympic Committee – Tribunal decided decision not to select for world champs was in circumstances of this case essentially a decision not to nominate for Olympics and therefore Tribunal had jurisdiction – SNZ changed selection criteria for world champs including which event would primarily be considered for deciding selection – whether selection criteria properly followed and implemented – whether breaches of natural justice and procedural fairness – whether material on which selection decision could reasonably be based – whether consultation required with swimmers when change selection criteria – whether “sole discretion of selectors” is valid selection criteria – while some matters may have been handled better, Tribunal found no breach of natural justice or procedural fairness and did not find that selection criteria not properly followed or implemented – selectors required to consider “potential world competitiveness” under criteria – objective and subjective factors in decision – while selectors thought swimmer had potential, they did not consider he was likely to be world competitive at this stage of his career – Tribunal accepted selectors acted with best intent and made decision they were entitled to make – no grounds established to set aside selectors’ decision and appeal dismissed.

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