SWIMMING.

Auckland Star, Volume XXXVIII, Issue 244, 12 October 1907, Page 12

SWIMMING.

Theo. B. Tartakover, the Sydney swimmer, is back again in London from the Continent, where he gave samples of Ms prowess in Paris and Hamburg. He has. I am sory to say, come back -with a very poor opinion of the French '"crowd" he came into contact with, but of tbe Germans he met he cannot speak too highly (says our London correspondent). In Paris ' Tartakover won the Grand Prix at Joinville. doing the 100 metres (practically 110 yards) in 61 2-ssec. The race was over a straightway course in the Alyia, a tributary of tht- Seine, and wi3 swum with the stream. The flow, however, is almost imperceptible, and, unless you watch some floating object, you would imagine it to >f still water. Even with the assistance of the stream, Tartakover's performance was a fine one, for he had no plunge to assist him in cutting Time's comb, the start being a floating one from a pole floating athwart the river. The strength of the stream may be gauged by the fact that in a 120 metre trial —60 metres up and 60 meters down, from a floating start, a.nd taking the turn at a rop2 —Tartakover did lmin. 19 4-ssec, which means that he travelled at the rate of 66* seconds for the 100 metres, or practically 60 3-5 for a hundred yards. Tartakover, I may mention, is still waiting for the prize he won in this race, which was decided on August 11th. The prize was oifered by the French motoring journal "'L'Auto," I understand, so one can only assume that Tartakover's long wait is the result of a ingFrom Paristhe Australian repaired to Hamburg, where he joined S.C.. the oldest organisation of its kind in Germany, the club having been estab- j lished in IST9. He was also made an honorary member of the Germania S.C., and of the Posiedon S.C. whose members were greatly elated when they heard that the crack Australian racehorse was named after their club. Tartakover went to Hamburg mainly in order to meet Zoltan de Halmay in an international 100 metres race, "but the Hungarian failed to materialise, and the event was retraces a match be- I tween the Australian and Kelle, the sprint champion of Hamburg. Before this event was decided, however. Tartakover was persuaded to take the water in a 600 metres race against Rous, the German champion, who beat Cecil Healey by 50 yards in a similar event last year, and another distance swimmer named Meyn. The race nearly settled the Australian. The weather was beastly, rain pouring down, whilst a stiff, cold wind made the surface of the water very rough. And when the Australian got into it he found it fearfully cold — it was, I understand, only 14 degrees above freezing point. After swimming about 300 metres, Tartakover came over very queer, and found himself unable to see to steer properly. He could indeed only see straight by keeping close to the poles running alongside - the course, and touching them at intervals. He became worse as the race progressed, and felt as though his lungs and stomach were being frozen, but he "stuck it" to the bitter end, and was only beaten about five-and-twenty yards by Rous, who won the race by 10 yards from Mevn. So done up was Tartakover that he had to be lifted from the water. He was in a state of collapse, but Kous promptly set to work on his carcase with some preparation, and managed to poll the Australian round sufficiently to enable him to go for the 100 metres. He was not feeling at all like record-breaking, naturally, and. but for disappointing the spectators, would have stood down. As it was. he made up his mind to get it over in the shortest possible time. and. making the pace from the start (a floating one), won easily in lmin 11 2-ssec —a pretty good performance after what he had undergone in the 600 metres race. His prize was a splendid marble and bronze card bowl, and a silver medal, and in remembrance of his visit they also gave hin=. a fine medallion. In all other respects the German swimmers treated Tartakover, as he puts it. "like a prince,"' and if you want to get into the bad books of Theo. B. well, run down the Germans.