SWIMMING.

Auckland Star, Volume XLIX, Issue 11, 12 January 1918, Page 14

SWIMMING.

I Duke Kahanamoku, world's record holder, averaged more than sixty strokes to the minute in the recent mile and a half island swim, which he won against a field of eleven other starters. His time, with the tide going out and a wind blowing down over the moiihtairisV Was 27 minutes and 52 seconds. The race was from Castle's Point to the Diving Stand of the Outrigger Canoe Club regatta at Waikiki, and proved the feature number on a programme that was crowded with aquatic events.

_ The entrants hit the water with a single splash when the pistol" was fired, hut the Duke, selecting a course inshore, covered the distance without difficulty and well in front of his competitors. His time constitutes a new record for the distance.

i All of Miss Olga Dorfner's records made during the recent season of swimming around Philadelphia were adopted as official at the national meeting of the A.A.U. The effect of this is to place her at tbe head of American women swimmere, with Miss Claire Galligan champion of the middle and longer distances, and MSss Dorothy Burns champion of the open water sprints.

It is interesting that Miss Dorfner should have achieved such success when for a long time she had a fear of the water. She is 19 now and has been swimming for three or four seasons. However, when she first visited a pool It was to draw back and hold on to a rope. It was only after her father threatened to terminate her swimming course then and there that she plucked up courage and ventured into the water.

I Her first notable performance was m ,1915. when she swam the 50-yard race at |the Philadelphia Swimming Club in 30 2-5 .seconds, cutting down the record by two seconds.

Since then she made a new record ln 1916 for the 100-yard race when she won the Middle Atlantic A.A.U. 100-yard swimming championship for women in 1 minute 9 3-5 seconds, 7 1-5 seconds quicker than the old time.

One of her latest records was made in May, 1917, when she won the 220-yard national indoor A.A.U. championship for women in 2 minutes 59 2-5 seconds. She never trains for races. Her winning i motto is: "Clean normal life, with plenty of exercise and sleep.'*