N.Z. GIRL CHAMPION.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIV, Issue 233, 3 October 1933, Page 13

N.Z. GIRL CHAMPION.

THE COST OF SUCCESS.

(From Our Own Correspondent.)

SYDNEY, September 30.

It is four years since Miss Ena Stockley came to live here, but thousands of - people in Auckland and many more throughout Sew Zealand must still have a lively recollection of her splendid performances in our water carnivals not so very long ago. She did not swim regularly here till 1930, and in 1032 she fulfilled her clearest ambition by winning the 100 yards free style New South Wales championship for the third time. It may be remembered that she won this distinction in 1926 when she came over here from Auckland with Miss Piri Page, and again in 1928, when she swam here with Miss Kathleen Miller. Now having, as she puts it, "done the hat trick," she is inclined to rest from her labours at least for the time being. Training Every Night. Of course Miss Stockley is still a swimming enthusiast, but she has been training and swimming in races and matches for 10 years, and she told an interviewer this week that she is rather tired of the monotonous routine. Anyone who works from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. five days in the week, and then starts training at anything—rowing, swimming, running, football—must sympathise with her. "Every night," she said, rather pathetically, "after work, from one to two hours at the swimming baths, a rub down, homo and bed. During the week-ends an extra swim in the daytime. Rarely was I able to go to a dance, a theatre party or any late social affair." But there were other deprivations, of an even more poignant nature. "No smoking, of course, no cocktails, few sweets. You have no idea," she told the newspaper man, confidentially, "how much will-power it take 3 to see a cream-puff and not eat.it." And all for what? "Weeks of practising turns, touches, starts and finishes, hours of work that were all conceutiated in a championship that took about Go seconds to swim." Wants to Train a Champion. No wonder that after 10 years of this sort of thing Miss Stockley feels that she would like a little rest. But it must not be imagined that she takes a cynical view of her favourite sport, or that she is cutting herself adrift from it. On the contrary, she is giving up competition—swimming only to pass on what she knows to younger rivals—she is taking up the teaching and training of swimmers as a profession. "My ambition now," she says, "is to train a champion," but she is determined that anyone who accepts her guidance shall be shepherded and safeguarded with the utmost care. "She will not be allowed to swim in senior events till she is at least 10 years of age; she will concentrate on one or two events each season; she shall not swim unless she feels quite fit." There is sound wisdom in all this, and though Miss Stockley's experience has taught her that "a woukl-be champion must subordinate everything to her swimming," she evidently still thinks it worth while.