SWIMMING Christchurch Girl In N.Z. Team

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30338, 14 January 1964, Page 13

SWIMMING Christchurch Girl In N.Z. Team

Laurel Blackett, a 15-year-old Christchurch girl, who has been swimming competitively for only two years, has been chosen as a member of the nine-strong New Zealand junior team to contest the Australian junior swimming championships in Adelaide next month. The team also includes Miss Blackett’s former Canterbury team-mate, Judith Reid, now of Auckland, and the West Coast and South Island boys’ breaststroke champion, W. Brown, who is soon to move from Greymouth to Christchurch. In two seasons of championship swimming, Miss Blackett has twice won the Canterbury junior 110 yards and 220 yards breaststroke titles, broken the record for each distance three times, and represented the centre at the 1962 and 1963 national meetings. She is a member of the Spreydon club and attends the Christchurch Girls’ High School. Her coach (Mrs R. G. Pearce) recognised Miss Blackett’s potential after seeing her compete in a Cashmere primary sports meeting. She regards her charge as a natural breaststroke swimmer and one who should do increasingly well this season. Miss Reid, title-holder and record-holder for the junior girls’ 440 yards freestyle, is the only reigning national champion in the party. Brown was runner-up to G. RuzioSaban (Auckland) in last season’s junior boys’ 220 yards breaststroke. The team was announced last night by the convener of the national selection panel (Mr A. J. Donaldson, of Christchurch) after he had conferred by telephone with his fellow selectors, Messrs R. E. Shakespeare, of Hastings, and E. Harding, of Auckland. The team is:— Boys.— K. Barfoot (Auckland), 110yds freestyle and 110yds butterfly; W. Brown (West Coast), 110yds and 220yds breaststroke; G. Campbell (Waikato), medley and 110yds freestyle. Girls. Laurel Blackett

(Canterbury), 110yds and 220 yds breaststroke; Jennifer Halsey (Waikato), 110yds and 220yds backstroke and probably 220yds medley; Barbara Jonas (Nelson-Marlborough), 110yds and 220yds breaststroke; Margaret McCall (Waikato), 220yds medley; Judith Reid (Auckland), 110 yds and 440yds freestyle; Suzanne Woonton (Auckland), 110yds and 440yds freestyle.

The manager will be Mr G. S. Brockett, of Christchurch, who is also deputy-chairman of the council of the New Zealand Amateur Swimming Association. The team will leave Auckland on January 22 and will break its journey in Tasmania to compete in four of the six sessions of the Tasmanian State title meeting. These are at Clarence (January 25), Hobart (January 27), Launceston (February 1), and Glenorchy (February 4). The team will contest the Australian junior titles in Adelaide on February 7 and 8 and will probably return to New Zealand the following day.