OTAGO PLANS BIG TEAM TO DEFEND SWIMMING HONOURS

Auckland Star, Volume LXXV, Issue 309, 30 December 1944, Page 3 (Supplement)

OTAGO PLANS BIG TEAM TO DEFEND SWIMMING HONOURS

A team of 28 swimmers and divers will represent Otago in the New Zealand women's, intermediate and junior championships at the Riddiford Baths, Lower Hutt, on January 27, 29 and 30. This is one more than the number which travelled to Auckland last January, when Otago won the War Memorial Shield with a record number of points for the intermediate and junior classes. Several champions will be defending their titles, and a number of former champions will be seeking fresh laurels. The defending champions are Miss Ngaire Lane (women's 100 and 220 yards backstroke), Miss Marjory Hughes (intermediate girls' 75 and 100 yards breaststroke), Miss Mayzod Reid (intermediate girls' diving), and Stuart Williams (junior boys' diving). Miss Phyllis Middleditch, an ex-intermediate breaststroke champion, is competing in the women's class on this occasion and C. Gibson and Miss S. Payne, each of whom won two junior championships at Auckland, will figure in the intermediate division at Lower Hutt. Among the others with previous championship experience are Lloyd Wilson, R. J. Isaacs and G. Sinclair in the intermediate boys' class, Misses Lorraine Kearns, B. Moore and E. Marslin in the intermediate girls' section, and Misses Lyall Kearns, Hazel Forsyth and Shirley Simonsen. in the junior girls division. The newcomers include several who should perform well, and if any of. the others perform less prominently than expected it may be considered that the Otago centre's oolicy of team-building will again pay dividends in the next year or two. For the first time in nine years Miss Winnie Dunn will not be a competitor, but she will attend as chaperone to the party. She started a run of national championship winning (breaststroke) in 1938 and established records for 100 yards, 100 metres, 220 yards and 400 metres. All, with the exception of the-last, still survive. It was Miss Marie Pasalich, of Auckland, who broke her winning sequence .last year, defeating her in the 100 yards championship. She did not defend her 220 tit 1 * also won by Miss Pasalich. *